You Can Never Be Broken
by TigerTulip
Summary: You always hear of a boy and his dog but never a girl and her dog. Exile knew that she was different. It would baffle him but little did he know she would imprint on him permanently. Ch. 9 Youth Is A Fire That Never Burns Out
1. An Odd Situation

TigerTulip: I never thought I'd be writing a fanfiction for the Road Rovers. At first I thought it was silly and a little racial stereotyped but the more I watched the more I fell in love with the characters and story line. It was a shame it only lasted for 13 episodes. The title "You Can Never be Broken" is based upon the idea of people saying you can't make it or you're too damaged of a person but you really can achieve things if you try. Corny summary, I know. I made Exile (as he's my favorite character and to place him) one of the main characters in this fanfic. I hope it plays out all right. I think some of you will enjoy it. Here you go!

**You Can Never be Broken**

**An Odd Situation**

**Acadia National Park, Maine, USA**

It was an average day for Exile and the Road Rovers. They woke up at Mission Control around six a.m. and got on to do they're daily chores and responsibilities. The mission their Master gave to them for the day was to check up on the National Park in Maine. Something was stirring in the lumber yards on the border of the park, stealing supplies. There have been reports of missing food from the local grocery stores too.

The Master didn't usually take time for petty thefts like this but in the lumber yard; the control room was entered into. It caused malfunctions for the working men and women's new building processes they were working on. They planned on cutting wood for a new International Hospital for people with different languages and backgrounds. The hospital would be open to new immigrants coming to the U.S.A. But if this person made a second attack on the control room, the hospital would take months getting its lumber to make its beams and levers for the new building.

He ordered the Rovers just to investigate. It could have been General Parvo. Maybe that ex-military nut, Zachary Storm, who escaped from the asylum no more than a few months ago. The Rovers did as they were told and now they were in the snowy winter of Maine.

They went to the lumberyard and found footprints in in the snow.

"Let the tushy-biting begin!" howled Blitz.

"First, we gotta catch the thief in action," Hunter tried to reroute the Doberman back to their original mission. But trying to convince Blitz on what to do was nearly impossible.

Shag pointed out an opening in the steel gate nearby and they went to inspect it. It was small but still big enough to let something in. Everyone but Exile was drawn into the investigation.

The husky breathed in an out the cold crisp air.

"Ahhhh, it reminds me of Mother Russia," he sighed, "The snow, the tall pines, and—"

"Look out!" cried Colleen.

Exile and the others looked to where she was pointing. Up near the control room, on the roof, was a creature moving. Its Hershey-colored eyes caught sight of them and then it quickly bolted. The Rovers jumped into action to catch the thing but they lost sight of it. But not scent.

Hunter, being part tracking dog, sniffed the air and found the scent; wild tree sap and peaches and cream.

That was an odd mixture, he thought.

Hunter followed the scent and led the Rovers to the direction the thing may be in. They heard the chain gate rattling and they hurried. It was getting away! They saw footprints and kicked up snow leading out of the lumberyard and into the woods. They got down on all fours and chased after whoever it was.

"How could it get away from us dhat fast?" Blitz barked, "If it is a monster, I'll take it down!"

The dogs stopped when they reached the White Pines part of the forest. They got on all fours when they heard barking falling from one of the pines.

"It is climbing!" Exile determined and used his night vision to get a better look up in the trees. He saw an old tree house cradled on one tree's branches and he growled. "It is headed for that structure!" pointed and used his heat vision on the fortress. Why there was a treehouse in the middle of a national park, the Rovers were too busy to answer that. Maybe it was built by a couple of kids years back, none of them knew.

When the abandoned tree fort came down, they heard a wail, and looked to see that the monster was still in the tree.

"Exile, I think you've got this," Hunter said, "Me and the others will get back to the Jet Rover and get a cage ready. You get that thing out of the tree and meet us back down the trail."

"Okeydokey Comrade," Exile smiled at the other freedom fighter and turned his attention back to the mission at hand.

Exile searched through the trees trying to spot the next thing that moved. He turned on his night vision and stared high into the branches of the Eastern White Pines. The husky then caught sight of the monster climbing up in a branch fifty feet from the ground. He turned his night vision on to get a better look. When his eyes were trained on his target, he released his heat vision.

The red rays hit the branch the monster was clinging to. It let out an eerie like scream as it plummeted off of the tree and into the air. Maybe it was a Felin-Sapien, Exile thought to himself. He waited for the creature to fall to the snowbank below in front of him. He waited for it to crawl out of the snow and to face him, cat to dog.

For thirty seconds, the creature remained unmoving under the six-feet-snow. The snow then shuffled and tossed as a little hand poked out from the hole. Exile closed his opened jaws and perked his ears in curiosity. That wasn't a Felin-Sapien.

* * *

The Road Rovers were waiting done the hill, not knowing if their comrade had captured the monster successfully. Hunter squint his eyes to get a better look through the hailing snow and saw something coming up in the distance. It was their friend.

Exile came down the trail of snow toward the other Road Rovers. Hunter, Colleen, Blitz, and went to greet him.

"Yo, Exile! You find the mon-ugh Exile, what's that?" Hunter's eyes widened when he and the others saw what was kicking and screaming over the husky's right shoulder.

It was a human girl!

"Stop struggling, you were lucky hard landing was broken by soft snow," Exile growled sternly, "You gave us quite a scare now haven't you?"

The girl continued to pound her fists onto his massive shoulders to no affect. She kicked her legs high in the air and tried everything to get away from her captor. Exile did not take this lightly. He wrapped both arms around her back and shoved her a little upwards to surprise her. The girl gasped and screamed in terror as she leaned forward from his right shoulder, only four feet off of the ground.

"You're gonna drop me! You're gonna drop me!" she shivered in fear.

"Nyet, you an excellent climber such as yourself?" Exile chuckled, "Why would little climber be afraid of falling a couple of feet from ground?"

"When I'm stuck on the back of a dog-man!" she continued to squirm.

The other Road Rovers didn't know what to make of this. A mixture of feelings arose from the dogs; Shag was frightened and Colleen was interested on what the girl was doing here in the first place. Meanwhile, Hunter was really concerned that Exile would drop her and Blitz just wanted to laugh.

"Vhere did you find dhat little monster?" Blitz rested his elbow into his left arm. His eyes were squint and a big goofy grin was on his face as he stared impetuously at the girl.

"This **is** our little monster that was terrorizing the local wildlife 'round here," Exile set the girl on the ground. He made sure she stayed where he set her down as he kept his big hands on her shoulders.

She tried to shake his hands off but to no avail.

"Aww, 'ow old are you sweetie?" Colleen knelt down to get a better look at the child.

The girl bit her bottom lip as Colleen brushed her hand across her raven- colored hair to see her face. She stuck her tongue out childishly at Colleen. The collie frowned and took her hand away. "Not much of respect on this one is there?" she stared up at the boys.

"No respect at all," Exile replied.

Hunter got down on one knee next to Colleen and stared at the human. He placed his thumb and index finger between the girl's chin and pulled her face toward him. He asked the child what she was doing while her stay in the woods and what she was doing to cause so much trouble. The girl only said, "I was living in my tree house until you guys came along and blasted it out of my tree."

"Where's your mother? Your father?" Hunter pretended to be oblivious to what she had just said.

The girl remained silent. Seeing he was not going to get an answer for that question he went onto the next one. "Have you even heard of us? We're called the Road Rovers. And were the one trying to sabotage the lumberyard?" he asked.

"No, I've never of you guys before. And as for the lumberyard control room—that was an accident. I was trying to get the first aid kit inside and I guess I accidentally pushed a wrong button."

"You could have killed someone or yourself with all the destruction you have caused, little one!" Exile pulled her to face him.

"But the point is she didn't," Hunter tried to calm Exile.

"You surprised me when you came along in the snow and I thought your guys were werewolves. So I decided to run—" The girl caught herself revealing too much of her true feelings to these odd dog-men. She did not want them to know how she really felt about them. It would make them take advantage of her. "—But I wasn't scared at all," She said.

"Suuure you veren't," Blitz perked a teasingly voice, "So vhy not tell us, vhere vere you running to?"

"The abandoned tree house I found—before you knocked it down!"

Hunter stopped Blitz's ridiculous interrogation on the girl and stood up. He put his hands on his hips and gave her a strict glare. He decided to give her one of his moral lectures; "Well, what you were doing to get supplies and food was called stealing. It's the wrong thing to do and at your age you should know it. That's why kids like you have parents. So where are they?

The girl frowned bitterly at him and answered, "Dead. They've been gone ever since I was five."

Hunter felt a pang of guilt run through him. He wanted the girl to tell the truth, not hurt her.

"Oh—I'm sorry. But it still doesn't mean you deserve to live out here in the wilderness."

"You think I chose to live out here?! It's cold and gets wet. Trust me, I hate it out here. But I had to get used to it because I had to leave a mean place that I was before."

"What mean place?" asked Colleen.

"A bad place; a foster home with stupid rules and stupid people."

The Rovers looked at each other, deciding on what they were going to do with the girl. What was a foster home? They were never shoved into a position like this before. They weren't going to leave her out in the wilderness. The group came to a conclusion that they were going to take her back to Mission Control. Their Master would think of what to do.

The girl didn't go without a fight. Hunter had to hold her on his lap to keep her from fleeing away. Exile drove the Sky Rover back to Morocco, New Mexico. Blitz got smacked in the head by Colleen because he immaturely would not stop laughing at the girl's misfortune. Meanwhile, Shag worried what he was going to cook for dinner for a human that night. If she was even staying for dinner. When they reached the hidden base, Exile brought the ship down to the landing area below.

The Rovers came into the meeting room where their Master awaited them with the girl in tow. She was in awe of the base and all the equipment they had. She asked if she could look around but only received a "not now" from Hunter. The Master knew the child was coming because he watched their every move on the monitors in his lab. He was displeased with his Rovers' choice.

"You should have handed her over to the authorities, Rovers," he said.

The Cano-Sapiens' ears drooped and they seemed as if they were quivering from their Master's dissatisfaction. The girl did not know why they were acting like this. After all he was only a man. But then the girl wasn't a dog.

"Master, I know we should have given her to the police but there's a problem—" Hunter started, "She has no parents and she ran away from what she told us a "mean" foster home—What is a foster home by the way?"

The Master sighed. Why couldn't he have gone with cats? They'd understand human cultures faster by now.

"Foster homes are where human children are placed into for when they don't have any other place to go or—" he motioned to the girl, "Or in this young lady's case, for when they have no living relatives to take them in. " The Master turned all his focuses on the girl. She may have been a thief but with her situation he pitied her in a way. He decided to be gentle with this case.

She nervously gulped as he walked down the staircase. His eyes were ghost white, my God, they were ghost white! The man knelt down next to and asked her, her name and age. The man seemed to have a power over her of intimidation; one that the dog-men didn't have over her. With two words, she told everything;

"Roo. Ten."

The man chuckled and rested a hand on her shoulder, "Well, Roo. We can go with that name. Personally I think it's rather cute. How about we get you cleaned up, fed, and you can sleep here for the night."

Being a female, Roo was put under guard by Colleen being since she was a female and the only right choice to stand outside the door as Roo got cleaned up. The girl did as she was told.

After Roo's bath, Colleen had to drag her by the arm through the hallway because she was trying to escape through an air vent in the ceiling of the bathroom. Roo pulled back miserably as the collie grunted and groaned to get her to come along. Roo whimpered behind her upset face. Colleen got halfway down to the communion room and sighed. She let go of Roo's arm to get a breather. She panted with her tongue out and began to speak;

"Ya know kid; you're awfully unwilling to go with flow 'ere. It would 'elp if you'd walk with me instead of 'aving me to drag y-hey!"

Colleen looked back to see the girl was running away from Colleen. The collie got down on all fours and chased after her prey. That little sneak she thought in her head as she turned the corner Roo took. Roo looked behind her and saw the dog coming on close. She gritted her teeth and gulped. She sped faster and hung a left.

She spotted stacked boxes and saw her chance. With all her strength, she shoved over the pile of boxes so that they would collapse over each other. It made a small obstacle for Colleen to get over. The female Road Rover got back on twos and leapt over the boxes with ease. Meanwhile, Roo was already down to the kitchen.

Shag was coming out with a pizza in his hand and a twelve-liter bottle of soda in the other. The tall sheepdog couldn't help but twitch his right ear and looked over to see the human child from earlier turning around the corner. She was rushing past him and accidentally bumped into the giant beast. Shag jumped in terror and dropped his food and beverage.

Colleen slid right behind Roo, just in time for the pizza and soda to fall on top of her.

Shag and Roo stared in awe as the collie silently slipped her hands under her torso and lifted herself up midway. Coca-Cola and pieces of mushrooms and pepperoni slipped down her once beautiful hair. Shag began to tremble and backed away slowly.

"Mememememe!" he shivered.

Roo looked to him and back to Colleen. The collie was staring quietly at the messy floor beneath her. Roo was confused to why Shag was so scared of the smaller dog-woman right now. She didn't seem so scary at all. Actually, she was kind of funny looking now! A smile crinkled on Roo's lips and she burst out laughing.

"Nice hairdo pizza-face!" she rolled on her back and yowled with joy.

Collie simply smiled. Not a happy or joyful smile but a rage was burning heavily in her stomach and up to her throat. It was like a flame thrower as strong as Exile's heat vision was going to come out of her mouth and toward the human. It moved to her clutched fists and crinkling toes. She jumped up and slammed her armored fist into the wall.

Roo immediately stopped her laughing when she heard the breaking sound of the concrete. She stared frightened up at Colleen who's jowls were pulled back to reveal her canines.

"Ughhh-woops. Sorry Colleen," Roo grinned innocently, "You're not going to take this to heart are you?"

"Me? Noooo! I just want to see ya look as funny as I do!" the collie screamed and reached to grab the child.

Roo quickly got up and continued to run down the hallway with Colleen in chase, leaving a terrified Shag behind.

Meanwhile, the boys and Dr. Shepherd were in the communion room. Hunter was catching and spitting out his tennis ball. He chucked it fifty feet forward and used his super speed to catch it in his mouth and raced back to start over. Blitz was admiring himself in the mirror and brushed his ears back. Exile was weight lifting while Muzzle (or Scout) was being pat by Dr. Shepherd behind the ears.

The peace was quickly broken by a sharp yell that came from the hallway.

"Come back 'ere ya little monsta!"

The Rovers and doctor went to see what was going on and saw a sticky-pizza-covered Colleen trying to pull in a ballistic Roo by the arm. The ten-year-old tried to pull her arm loose from Colleen's grip but her free hand only slipped on the soda that covered Colleen's hand. Muzzle started to growl until Dr. Shepherd stepped in.

"What is going on here?!" he demanded.

The girls stopped fighting and look up at the stern professor. Roo and Colleen looked at each other and gave the other a bitter glare. They pointed to each other and started flying off the wall with accusations and pinning the fault onto the other person. It went on for another five seconds until Dr. Shepherd slammed his foot on the ground and ordered them to "sit." Colleen immediately obeyed while Roo stood up puzzled on what the dog was doing.

"Oh, I get it, sit!" she giggled.

Just then, Blitz grabbed her by the back of her pajama shirt and lifted her off the ground. "Vhat did you do to my angel?!" he demanded.

"One Blitz, I'm not your angel, two, put the kid down-she's mine!" Colleen got up and tried to reach for Roo again.

Dr. Shepherd stopped the fight before it became worse. He told Blitz to put Roo down and the Doberman obeyed. He told Colleen to take a shower and go back to her home in England with the Prime Minister of England. Colleen sneered in disgust and walked back to her own personal washroom.

Roo frowned and looked to the professor, "I'm sorry." She folded her arms behind her back and saw his expression was not changing. She lowered her head in shame and whispered, "If you were a runaway you'd understand why I want to leave."

"That's where I'm thinking of lacing you back into," Shepherd said bluntly.

"WHAT?!" Roo gasped.

"I mean it young lady," he said, "A Mission Control is no place for a child."

"You can't send me back!" she pleaded.

"What am I supposed to do Roo? You won't tell us your real name, I have enough time on my hands taking care of my dogs, and by law if I kept you here then that would be kidnapping on my hands! You're going back to your foster home, first thing tomorrow!"

Roo's hopeless gaping mouth shut and she narrowed her brows up at him. "No you won't," she snapped, "I'll just run away again!"

"No, you will not run away again," Exile stated simply. He walked up to the cringing Roo and looked toward his master. "Master, I will return the girl to her home first thing in the morning."


	2. Kills Me Softly

TigerTulip: Thank you to everybody who read the first chapter and those who reviewed. This chapter's title is a spoof on Lauryn Hill's_ Killing Me Softly_. When I was developing this chapter, I wanted an interesting background for my character Roo and for why the main title is really called "You Can Never Be Broken." I hope you all enjoy!

**Kills Me Softly**

Roo was mumbling under her breath as Exile carried her down to his room. He was going to keep an eye on the girl overnight so that she would have enough rest for the long day ahead of her and his. Hunter was right behind him and saw that the girl would not give up on leaving. Hunter felt it was his time to step in and help the situation.

"Hey, Exile, why not let the kid walk for a little? I mean, it won't help for her to stretch her legs, right?" he insisted.

"No, she is going back home and she needs to sleep," Exile didn't turn to look back at his leader.

"Why are you so hell-bent on trying to get her back yourself?" Hunter asked.

"Because in Mother Russia; leaving your home and family behind is insubordinate."

"Well this is America! Plenty of terrible parents would trade their kids on the street for a bag of rocks!" Roo jumped into the conversation.

"Hush little one," Exile ordered.

Roo ignored him and began kicking him on his chest. Exile stopped and began to shake the little girl in his arms up and down mildly. Hunter watched as Exile tried to calm the ten-year-old down. Hunter had never seen this side of Exile before. Being so patient with someone who wasn't and he had never seen Exile interact with a child before. He thought children would be as foreign to Exile as living in the desert. Maybe there was something of Exile's past that he wasn't telling them.

"Exile, if you want I can take the kiddo for a while, while you get some sleep," Hunter opened his arms to take the exhausted girl.

"No, it is my duty to perform and I shall do it," Exile said and continued down to where his room was. Hunter shook his head and gave up. He wanted nothing more than to go back home to the white house and be with his real master, the President. Besides, all the other Rovers went back to their homes. Why not Hunter?

Exile had to wait outside his room before entering to make sure Roo was going to tire out and be ready for bed. Eventually, the girl stopped kicking and pounding her fists and slumped over his shoulder exhausted and sleepy. "You're really not going to let me go back to my old life are you?" she mumbled and yawned.

"If that means going back to your rightful home, then yes," Exile carried her into his room.

The room was dark with only the light of the open door leaking in. He placed her into his bed and began to undo her shoe laces. "I don't like this bed," she complained, "It has dog fur all in it." She rubbed her eyes and squeaked another yawn.

"That's because it is my bed, little one," he answered annoyed.

Roo flinched and she looked down at the bed again. She felt rather uncomfortable being on someone else's mattress. "W-Where are you going to sleep?" she asked intimidated. Exile pointed over to his chair and told her that he would not be sleeping all night to make sure she would not flee in the middle of a one of his naps.

"N-No!" she started to squirm as he tried to tuck her in. She got out of the bed and tried to flee but Exile stopped her. He placed her back in the bed and told her to stop acting so childishly. "I don't want to sleep in a bed that's supposed to be someone else's!" Roo said bluntly.

"Why? Is it bad luck to you?" Exile chuckled. He had heard strange rumors of bad luck outside of his country in other ones. Like in America if a black cat crossed your path, you'd get bad luck but in the UK if a black cat crossed your path, it means good luck. In Egypt, if a broom sweeps your feet, you won't get married. Maybe this was some odd belief of hers.

"No! It's rude! If I use things that don't belong to me, I get hurt!"

"Don't be weird girl alright; I have to tell Blitz that all the time. Don't make me start with you."

Suddenly, the girl clung to Exile's torso in fear, not wanting to let go. He eyes were the size of golf balls and small tears were starting to form in her eyes. Exile's ears shot up as his heart leapt bewilderedly. What was this girl doing?! What was so frightening about sleeping on a bed that was so scary to her? Exile tried to pull her away from him and she would not budge. Exile sighed and asked, "Okay, so what do you suppose we do about this?"

"You sleep in your bed while I sleep on the floor," she sniffed, "I don't want to get in trouble!"

Exile sighed and put a hand to his exhausted head.

"And have you sneak out of Road Rovers HQ while I'm asleep? No way. How about we do this little one." He motioned her over to his chair and said, "How about I sit on my chair and you sit with me so that way, no one sleeps in other's bed. No bad luck. No one gets into trouble.

Roo nodded wearily and walked over to the chair with the husky. He sat down in the dark blue Russian armchair. It was a beautiful armchair with real pine scented wood that brought joy and relaxation to Exile whenever he sat down in it. The Rover nestled down in the chair and helped Roo onto his knee. He watched her for a half an hour to fall asleep.

She yawned and rubbed her drooping eyelids with her fists and eventually she fell asleep in his arms. Her head was lying on his chest and she did not make a sound. Funny, Exile thought, she is so tiny and yet a strong girl. Stubborn as ox but still tiny as little fox kit. He supported Roo with his right arm and with his free hand, cradled his chin. The husky made sure not to take his eyes off the girl. For any minute she could run away.

But she didn't.

She lay on his knee and stayed quiet the entire time.

Exile had accidentally fallen asleep.

* * *

Exile gasped himself awake. He looked down to see if the girl was still there.

His anxiety calmed when he saw that she was still sleeping. He inhaled and exhaled through his nose, hinting a sigh. He closed his eyes and laid his chin back into his free hand. He called himself a lucky idiot. He was an idiot for falling asleep but lucky for not waking to a missing girl he had promised his Master to return to her home.

He gently shook the girl awake.

She moaned and nestled her head back into his robed chest. Exile was about to shake her again until she squeaked a yawn. It put him off guard. She sounded exactly like a puppy waking up. Exile stared at her without any noticeable emotion on his face. He then got a whiff of her scent. Pine sap. It was his favorite kind of smell. She nuzzled her head again into his chest and that's when he woke back up.

"Hey, what do I look like to you? A pillow?" he asked and shook her awake successfully this time.

"You're soft as a pillow," she said dizzily.

Exile felt that he could put her down seeing as she did not run away in the middle of the night. Roo yawned again and asked what time it was. Exile looked at his alarm. It read six a.m. as usual.

"This early?!" she complained.

"Yes, little one," the husky replied and led her out of the room to find someone to watch her so he could shower. The male Rovers got lucky. Since Blitz woke up each morning to shower first and with Shag hogging it to drink out of the toilet, the Master decided to build individual bathrooms in their rooms. Colleen never needed to worry about her own bathroom. Being the only female, she had the women's room all to herself. For the rest of the morning, Exile had it all planned out. He and Roo would leave by eight o'clock to get her back to the "foster home".

Hunter was awake and at the kitchen table. He was lapping up water from his dog bowl. He looked so at peace, Exile didn't want to disturb his comrade. It was too late. As soon as he and Roo came into the kitchen, the retriever's eyes caught sight of them. He licked his chops, sat up straight in the chair, and greeted them;

"Hey guys, what's up?"

"I do not want to bother you, Hunter," Exile confessed, "But I wish to shower before my mission and—"

His wince at Roo was the only hint Hunter needed.

The retriever smiled and said, "No prob Exile. I'll keep an eye on the kid here."

Exile nodded and went back to his room.

He undressed and got into to the shower. He pulled his ears back when the warm water hit his fur. Exile loved his showering time. Memories of Siberia and pleasant times with his friends would run through his mind at the time. He would dream of his abnormal obsession of tall pine trees. He loved the smell, sight, and scent of them. It led him to thinking about the girl. He couldn't get Roo's pine sap scent out of his head.

She half smelled like that and the other half was peaches and cream.

He didn't care for the peaches and cream part but Mother of Russia, a human that smelt like pine sap, his favorite smell of all time. He figured since she had been in the national park and lumberyard of course she was going to pick up the scents of the wilderness. The little girl reminded him of the great pine trees of his homeland.

When his shower was finished, he walked out of the washroom, and back to the kitchen. He was in his normal silver uniform with a red "R" on the chest.

Hunter was busy trying to entertain Roo. The girl tilted her head to the side as she tried to keep up with him as he used his super speed. Hunter sped up from behind Roo and poked the girl in the back of the shoulder. She almost sprung up in surprise. She turned around and saw his after-image and noticed the retriever was going into another direction again. He came around the bend from the left and scooped up Roo who screamed, not predicting it. He sped around the base doing wheelies to entertain her and the little girl let out a laugh.

The speed was exhilarating, twisting, and out of control. She felt tears coming out of her eyes; she could not keep up with the wind blasting in her face. She loved running around like this.

When Hunter realized she was getting dizzy, he stopped. Roo wobbled back and forth in his one arm as Hunter let out a "woot!"

Exile chuckled as he went over to the two.

"That was quite a ride was it not, little one?" he asked.

When her dizzy-spell was over, the girl smiled and said, "Can we do that again? It was awesome!"

"Maybe later kiddo," Hunter set her down and led her over to the kitchen table.

They sat down and Exile came over to join them. Shag was at the stove cooking up another one of his gourmet meals. He was humming a song to himself as he happily stirred the brown-lumped food in the tall pot. He took out the ladle, sipped, tasted the food in his mouth and lips, and placed the ladle back in with satisfaction. Hunter and Exile's stomachs began to growl with anticipation. Once the smell of the food hit their nostrils, all they wanted to do was try it. Roo crinkled her nose. Something about the food didn't smell right.

When the sheepdog was done, he took out three dog bowls and poured his genius into them. He walked over to the table with one bowl in his left flat palm and the other two on his flat out arm and right palm. He looked very much like a waiter at a restaurant this way. He placed the bowls down individually in front of everyone and stepped aside. Shag, with his arms across his back, waited eagerly for Roo to try hers. He didn't have a chance to feed her one of his famous meals last night because she was sent to bed early for her "incident" with Colleen.

Hunter and Exile were drooling over their bowls and bit their bottom lips. They haven't eaten since last morning before going to Maine. The dogs took their bowls and dug in.

Roo looked at them with a mixture of disgust and envy. She was hungry too but the smell was intimidating to her. She looked at her reflection in the brown liquid and shrugged her shoulders. She picked up the spoon in front of her and put it into the food. Shag stood over her, waiting to see what this newcomer thought of his cooking.

Coming up with new concoctions was Shag's favorite thing after drinking from the toilet.

Speaking of which, Exile and Hunter lifted their heads just as Roo was about to open her mouth. They didn't know how a human would react to Shag's secret ingredient he either boiled or mixed into his cooking. Would she get sick? Exile ran to stop her but her lips already touched the spoon.

She swallowed the concoction and spat out her tongue. The texture was horrible. It was all lumpy, slimy, and stuck her gums and in between her teeth. She couldn't get a taste of chlorine out of her head either. She gazed over at Exile and Hunter who had looks of fear and worry on them.

"What?" her voice broke the silence.

"Um—Roo, are you okay?" Hunter gulped.

"The taste wasn't good and it's a little slimy in my mouth but—" she looked over to the sheepdog. She didn't want to hurt his feelings so she put on a smile; "But—It's still good."

Shag let out a sigh of relief and went back his food. Exile's arms hung over his bent knees as he continued to stare at Roo. She actually **liked** it? Hunter took his gaze off of Roo slowly and went back to eating his meal. Maybe Shag's secret ingredient did appeal to some humans

It wasn't until Shag ducked underneath the stove and pulled back up a bucket of water and poured it into the pot. When Roo asked what was in the bucket, Hunter bluntly said, "Toilet water. You know, I'm surprised you as a human would like it so much. You know, I never would have predicted th—"

"Blaggghhhh!"

As Hunter was speaking, Roo bent over on the floor and heaved chunks.

"Huh. I would not have predicted that either."

* * *

"I can't believe you let me eat that!"

The girl was whining in the back of the Cloud Rover as Exile drove in the cockpit. When they were cleaning her up from the vomit, she was crying and fussing the entire time. They had a hard time explaining to their Master about the puke on the kitchen floor. When they told him he nearly puked himself.

Now the girl was holding her stomach as she sat in her seat of the small jet.

"Hey, Exile, do you think we should pull over, kiddo over here doesn't look too hot again," Hunter asked.

The retriever asked to come along since there was nothing else to do in Mission Control that day. Parvo and Groomer weren't seen for weeks and no banks or dogs were being kidnapped for their experiments. Not refusing his request, Exile allowed him to come. The husky and leader were close to each other in their friendship. Not allowing Hunter to come would be like summer in the Antarctic for Exile.

"No," Exile said, "We have a mile of flight before we reach her home."

Exile frowned.

Their Master gave them directions to her foster home in Maine but he couldn't help but perseverate on the last thing their Master was trying to tell them. It seemed blurred out in the back of his and Hunter's head. The Rovers couldn't remember. Exile being in such a hurry to get his mission over with and Hunter playing with a tennis ball in his mouth. The only one that seemed to have focused on what the man was saying was Roo.

"C'mon Exile, I don't want to see the kid upchuck right here in the Cloud Rover."

Exile looked back and saw that Roo was looking rather green. He sighed and gazed back out the window. Maybe they could take a break, to give the girl one last moment of freedom before going back home.

They chose a spot outside the small island town of Islesford, Maine. They landed on a rocky beach only a few meters away from a wooded area. Hunter, Exile, and Roo came out of the Sky Rover's walkway and onto the coast. The sky was bluish-grey as seagulls squawked while flying in the air and nestling themselves atop the ocean's current. Exile looked out to the birds on the ocean. They looked like little white boats bopping up and down on the waves.

The beach was uneven as rocks covered most of the sand. The Rovers and Roo were careful where they stepped. Roo was looking into the woods and looked back at the dogs. She pointed and asked if she could use a bush to vomit behind.

Exile and Hunter looked at each other, reluctantly, and back at the girl.

"Do you promise not to run away?" Exile asked.

She nodded.

"Okay," he said as he watched the girl head into the forest.

What was supposed to take three minutes turned into ten. The dogs became skeptical and the husky turned to his comrade; "She ran away didn't she?"

"Yup," was all Hunter said.

The dogs lunged forward and into action to find her.

* * *

Hunter was speeding through the forest, leaving his noticeable fire-trail behind. He circled around the entire area and back again. It was in vain. The girl could not be found. He ran back to Exile who was waiting by a tall rock. Hunter stopped in front of him and said, "I scouted every nook n' cranny of this place and I still can't find the kid."

Exile cursed in Russian as he shook his head. He pinched his forehead with his fingers and looked back up at Hunter. "I was supposed to get this child back to her destination and I failed, comrade," he said.

"Don't worry Exile, buddy, we'll find her," Hunter smiled confidently. He placed a hand on the husky's shoulder hinting everything was going to be all right.

Exile smiled at him and nodded. They continued their search until Exile noticed something in the distance. He squint his eyes to get a better look. It was Roo!

When he got his hands on her she was going to wish she hadn't have run away. The husky stomped up to her direction as Hunter followed behind nervously. Not for the girl but for Exile. They heard voices. It was a voice different from the girl's. It was more mature and raspy at the same time. Then they realized something, Roo wasn't alone.

The girl hadn't had turned her back to see the Rovers as Exile hid behind a tree and Hunter, a rock. They wanted to stay hidden as long as they could get answers. They listened closely.

"Why are you back here?" came, the raspy voice.

"I was picked up," Roo responded.

"By who? The cops?"

Exile leaned forward trying to get a better look at the person Roo was talking to. He couldn't see until a thirteen-year-old girl stepped up onto the hill Roo stood on and was at her side. She was blonde with blue eyes with a mid-tanned skin color. She kept her straight hair tied back in a ponytail. She said;

"How did you get away from them? You know if TLC catches you, they'll lead the cops straight toward you. I might be in trouble just for knowing where you are."

Roo smiled softly and dipped her head, "I know. But it wasn't the cops that found me and don't worry, they'll never catch me."

The blonde shook her head, "You know that's what gets you caught over and over again. You get cocky and think that you're so smart and then you just get caught in the end."

"It won't happen this time, Charlene! Trust me! I'm never going back to that stupid group home ever again!"

Exile gave a confused look. She said that she belonged to a foster home, not a "group home." What was a group home anyways? Then the husky remembered those two words that his Master had told him right before they left. Darn. If only he heard his Master's explanation of it. Why did Roo deliberately sneak away anyways to meet up with this girl, Charlene, anyways? Exile didn't have time for these questions. He was going to learn more by listening than thinking right now.

"Come with me Char!" Roo insisted, "Together we can be free. Free from that place. It won't be us against the staff anymore. We can hop the next ferry out of this miserable island and get to the city. We can go back to where my Uncle Ron and I used to live. Things will be different for us, you'll see!"

"Why would I want to go down to that disgusting city? You see, there you go again. Thinking you can beat the odds."

"—At least I have a plan on not to get caught like you did with us!" Roo yelled, mentioning his and her friend's past. There was more to Roo's anger than that. Her "Uncle Ron" and the place where she lived with him must have meant something to her, Exile thought.

A sudden rush of anger flushed over Charlene and the girl rasped, "What do you know about running away?! I tried everything to be on my own when my foster parents didn't want me and were about to dump me back into DCF! I had to spend winters in the streets of the city. I had to fight for food when it was scarce. I had to do what it took to survive there, little girl! Where did you flee to? The damn forest! Two totally different settings."

"—At least I tried while you gave up."

Roo grunted when she was shoved back by Charlene. It was strange. Why Roo kept this person as a friend to Hunter and Exile. Was her life really that rough that, that was the only person she could make a connection with?

"—Get out of here, Roo," Charlene clutched her fists at her side and looked to the ground.

Roo stared at her friend in bewildered anger until they heard a twig snap in the distance. They gasped and looked down the hill to see a man with black hair and brown eyes.

"The hell are you doing up there Charlene?" he demanded.

"Chaz, I!" Charlene was partially shoved out of the way when "Chaz" saw Roo.

"Sooo you came back," he gave the ten-year-old a wicked smile. He bet down in front of her, revealing his rat-buck-like-teeth to her. Roo did not phase through his intimidation and flexed her chest out at him to show him she wasn't afraid. Exile and Hunter didn't blame her. This man seemed slimy and villainous. His grin went away and put a hand on her shoulder;

"Louis will be glad to know where you are now. So this is where you've been hiding."

Roo slapped his hand off her shoulder and said, "Not really, where I was really hiding is none of your business."

The man pretended not to notice her last words. Instead, he grabbed both girls by their wrists and began to pull them down the trail. Exile growled protectively and Hunter shook his head, noting him to stay hidden. The girls grunted as they tried to get free but the man was too strong.

"Knock it off you two! Let's get this over with!"

"No!" hollered Roo. She then proceeded to bite his hand and the man let go in surprise, "No!"

She bolted back to the woods, barely noticing Exile and Hunter. The Rovers leaned their backs closer to their hiding spots when Chaz ran past them soon after. They watched in anticipation as a terrified Roo made her way down another hill. When she got down the hill, she accidentally tripped over a large stick. She fell on her hands and knees with a thud.

"Gotcha ya little savage!" Chaz jumped on top of her and tried to restrain the girl. Roo pleaded for him to stop, that he was hurting her. The man didn't. He laughed and continued to hold her down.

Exile bit down on his teeth and fired a heat beam at a branch near Chaz's head, warning him to stop. The man yelped in surprise and turned to see who dared to do that to him. He was soon face to face with two large dog-men growling down at him. He began to sweat and let go of Roo.

The girl quickly got up and ran behind Exile, clinging to his side.

"What do you think you are doing hurting children like that?" Exile snarled.

"W-What kind of freaks are you?" Chaz demanded to know.

"We're Road Rovers!" Hunter punched him in the face knocking the man out cold.

With the unconscious man lying on the ground, the Rovers looked back to Charlene who watched in disbelief. She had the same look on her face as Roo when she saw them for the first time. Dogs that could stand on two legs? They walked over to the girl with Roo still clinging to Exile's side.

Hunter knelt down next to Charlene and placed his hands onto his shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Charlene nodded, "T-Thank you. Chaz isn't one of our favorite staffs—you can see why."

"What do you mean by staff?" Hunter asked.

"We live at a group home," Roo explained. For that moment, the girls seemed to be forgetting they were originally mad at each other; "It's a place where people with specific needs and situations are shoved into."

"We live at the TLC group home down the path. It's for people with either physical or mental disabilities. Roo and I were sent there by DCF. It's not a good place. They suck as staff to take care of us, the clients. All of them are either smoking cigarettes, talking on their phones, or making fun of us."

"They use a shed called an "isolation room" to put us into if we start acting up."

"Sometimes they leave you in there all day."

Exile and Hunter gulped. All day? What kind of place was this? A pound? Whatever it was, Exile was not going to let Roo go back to it. He couldn't learn to live with himself if he did. The Master had to understand.

"I'm taking her back with us, Hunter," Exile said, "I won't allow Roo to go back to that—Group home—"

Roo was about ready to jump in excitement. She looked to Charlene and asked her to come with them.

"No," Charlene shook her head, "I'm done with running away. I know it's no use. They'll just end up finding me. I'm going back to TLC."

Before Roo could protest, Hunter spoke first. He calmly said, "Then if you are to go back, get the good staff to come and pick up rat-face here." He pointed to the fallen man behind him and Charlene smiled.

"I will," she said. Before they left, Charlene looked back and said, "Please take care of Roo. She thinks she knows everything but she doesn't. She also gets into a lot of trouble, right Roo?"

"I do," Roo gave distained smile.

* * *

The Master and Shag were confused to see Roo back at Mission Control. The girl walked happily in front of Exile and Hunter as they went down the hall and into the Meeting Room. She was glad not to be going back to TLC. Exile and Hunter looked at each other nervously, not knowing what their Master was going to say.

"So you're all back," he stated quietly.

Exile and Hunter remained silent with their heads dipped and ears flattened back. Their Master didn't seem too mad at that moment of speaking. Maybe it was just him holding down his disappointment or annoyance that they didn't succeed at their mission. Whatever the reason, Exile stepped forward first and said, "It was my fault Master. I had no idea the real place where Roo lived was awful. Surely you understand I couldn't leave her there."

The Master looked to the ground with his arms folded across his back.

"Actually, I can Exile," he said.

The dogs seemed surprised by his words. Exile gazed at Hunter who gazed right back. They looked at each other, blinked, and back at their Master.

"Y-You do?" Hunter asked.

"—When I found out Roo belonged to a group home, I wanted to check on what kind it was. I've read news reports that it wasn't. Exile, Hunter, to give you a better understanding of group homes, they're for people with mental or physical disabilities who don't really have a place to go. Some are for elderly people, others for young adults, and children. Some are good but others—Roo, would you like me to tell them a little more about it? It's your choice."

Roo looked from Shepherd to the two Rovers that waited behind her. She remembered the police being called every weekend on at least one of the clients. Some were taken to the hospital for their own safety or that they were suicidal. She remembered the time a girl named Michelle was arrested for physical harassment on one of the staff. It was Chaz who instigated her along with another staff member, Paul. They had "teased" her because of her weight problem. They would tell her "you could lose a little bit of weight" or say "If you capture a Snorlax in your pokemon game, you should name it after yourself."

Michelle got angry and pushed Paul into the wall. You never angered Michelle. She was like a hulk on steroids whenever she was mad. She was also weird about who she liked too. One day, she'd be frustrated with Chaz but if any other client laid a hand on him, she'd threaten that client verbally or physically.

Michelle was diagnosed with something that the staff never revealed to the other clients. Roo would never know and that was the way it was. As for Charlene, she was the closest thing Roo had to a friend there. They'd talk at night as roommates and make friendship bracelets. Then the next day, Charlene and she would be fighting. The truth was Roo was a tad jealous of Charlene. Everyone followed her without questions and all the boys wanted to be with her. A boy named Matt teased Roo too, not because he thought she was loser, but for the fact that Roo could be in more physical contact with Charlene. Roo was the only ten-year-old there and had a mild social disability known as Asperger's.

Connecting with people her own age was hard enough but especially with people to a year and three older than her.

Charlene and Matt made fun of Roo behind her back. Saying she was immature, foolish, and naïve. Deep down, Roo knew that everyone had their problems there but Roo couldn't get over the past so easily from her experiences. She would go out of her way to apologize when she was wrong to the clients and staff. Or she would go out of her way to share with them when the other kids didn't share back. Eventually Roo thought she was either too sensitive or loyal to others or just plain stupid.

Roo hated being reminded or asked of her past at TLC. But with all her might, she would try not to let Shepherd or the Rovers know about it.

The little girl then realized that everyone was staring at her and she snapped out of her thoughts. She shook her head toward Shepherd and said, "I really don't want anyone to know."

Shepherd nodded and looked to the Rovers; "Then so be it. Roo, I really don't make acceptances like this but—you can stay here until I figure out a suitable real home for you. A home maybe where you can find peace with it and yourself."

"Really?!" Roo cried out.

"Yes."

Exile and Hunter then took Roo back to the hangar bay to give her the tour she wanted from last night.

Behind their backs, the Master frowned nervously and whispered, "I just hope you aren't too damaged, child. I just hope you're not too damaged."

TigerTulip: If anyone is confused on the new terms "foster home" or "group home" you can message me and I'll be a little more clear on it. Thank you.


	3. Babysitter Blitz

TigerTulip: Thank you to everyone who came back to read the second chapter. Thank you to Rogue Rover and GrimlockX4 for reviewing. I'm cooking up some good ideas with Rogue Rover for the further chapters ahead so expect updates. Since Blitz is Exile's partner in crime, I decided to give him a chapter of his own. I'm also thinking of rating this "T" later just in case because some language is going to come in the following chapters. Enjoy everyone!

**Babysitter Blitz**

"Vhy do I have to do it?!" the Doberman demanded with a growl.

"Because Colleen's still not over that specific night, I have to go to a Presidential Campaign for humane rights for dogs across America, its Shag's grooming day, and Exile is going to a sled-dog race in Siberia today with his owner," Hunter explained simply, "Besides, doesn't the grand Chancellor of Germany have two rugrats running around and you know how to deal with them?"

"Yah," Blitz sneered with his arms folded across his chest, "I know how to watch kids. It's easy."

"Theeen you're the perfect candidate to watch Roo," Hunter smiled.

Blitz lowered his ears in defeat. What was the point in arguing? The Master was too busy working in his lab to figure out new weapons and vehicles for the Road Rovers to use. The other Rovers were gone and well-Muzzle couldn't watch anything without tearing it up. But why Blitz? Why him?! Sure he learned how to watch **his **boys at home in Germany but to watch a kid he barely knew?!

Hunter put an arm over Blitz' shoulders and said everything was going to be fine. "Besides, it was just as hard for Exile to leave Roo behind," Hunter stated.

Blitz looked around to see where the girl was to no avail. He looked back to Hunter and asked where the "little monster" was. Hunter answered she was in the kitchen and the two walked to that corridor. When they entered, Blitz screamed in terror over what they first saw. Roo was holding a steak in front of a starving Muzzle's face. She showed no sign of teasing and asked, "You want it boy? Yeah? Here you go."

She went to remove the dog's muzzle and the dog bared its fangs as drool rolled down his chops. Before she got any closer to removing the mouth gear, Blitz grabbed her from behind and pulled her back. Hunter quickly pulled Muzzle away from Roo at the same time. Roo, in surprise, dropped the steak only for the Rottweiler to grab it in his powerful jaws.

"Little monster, are you crazy? Muzzle is one of the scariest dogs you could eva meet!" Blitz held her close to him so that she would be looking face to face with him.

"He is?" Roo blinked, "He seems nice to me."

They both looked over to see hunter patting a satisfied Muzzle on the head and saying, "That's right boy, don't bite people's hands off okay. You full from the steak? Yeah, that's right." Hunter placed the muzzle back onto his friend face and narrowed his brows at Roo.

"Roo, that was a very dangerous thing to do," he said.

"Sorry, but how was I supposed to know?" she asked.

"How about the way he has a muzzle on and that he strapped in a strait jacket?" Blitz sighed. This was not going to be an easy day for him.

"Isn't being up on his hind legs all the time bad for his back?" Roo asked.

"I never thought about that," said Hunter, "I'll see what the Master could do about that but-he's been fine like that for over a year now. Well anyways, Blitz, watch Roo and try to make sure she doesn't get into any more trouble for the day, okay."

An hour past and Blitz rarely kept his eyes on Roo. Babysitting other kids wasn't on his daily routine schedule. This was his day to pay attention only to himself in his mind. He was in the gym weight lifting. He started with a hundred pounds and went up to a hundred and fifty. He did twenty rows, took a break, and went back to twenty again. After a set of one hundred he put the weights back onto the bar stand and went to the other weight machines.

He was stopped when he heard a voice.

Little monster, he thought.

"Blitz, I'm bored. Can I play with you?" Roo came from behind him.

"You're ten-years-old. Go play a game by yourself," he raised the pulley bars.

"I've only been ten for two weeks. There's no computer games here, no Barbie dolls, no other kids my age. Why can't you play with me?"

Blitz sarcastically picked up a basketball and tossed it behind him for Roo to "catch". "Play with that," he went back to his work out.

"You wanna play basketball!" she jumped excitedly and picked up the ball.

"Nein."

"You're a party-pooper, you know that?"

"Little monster," he bared his fangs at her.

"Stop calling me that!"

"Nein. Why should I? You are a little monster. The first thing you do when he find you is to look all scary and try to run away."

"Fine, I'm a little monster. But you'll always be a chopper-face!"

"That's it!" Blitz immediately dropped the lunging bars and the weights clammed down. Roo stepped back with the ball in her hands as an angry Blitz confronted her. "It's time I bite your soft tushy off to teach you a lesson you little brat!"

Roo peered down at the ball in her hands, back up at Blitz, and down and up again. An idea popped into her head and with quick reflexes shoved the ball into the Doberman's open jaws. Blitz yelped and stood back stunned. Roo did what she did best and ran down the corridor to find the safest place where she could hide from the doberman.

Muzzle! Muzzle! I need you! She pleaded in her head.

Blitz slipped on the floor as he ran after the small girl. He got up and sped on after her. The kid was a lot faster than he had thought, he gave her that. But there was no way she could outrun a Doberman on the verge of hiney biting. He leapt forward with his unsheathed claws and tried to bite the girl. Blitz got hold of her leg and went to nip her.

Just then, Shepherd's voice telepathically went through his head.

_Remember Blitz, you're supposed to watch her not hurt her. If you fail to do this, you won't get to sleep on the sofa near the fire place anymore. _

Blitz sighed and lowered his ears. He seethed his claws and grabbed Roo by the arm. He took her into the communion room and over to a staircase. He told her to sit down on a step for ten minutes and that she was in timeout. Roo stuck her tongue out at him only to get bopped on the head by Blitz. She groaned in pain and watched as Blitz went to sit down.

A smile came to her face and she thought up of a plan to get back at him.

After the ten minutes were over Blitz did what the Chancellor would do to his kids when they were done with timeout. He walked over to Roo and asked if she was ready to behave now. She nodded with a smile and got up.

When Blitz had went into the other room, Roo made her move. She knew from Hunter that he kept a record book on how many tushies he had bitten. If he made it to a thousand he would be able to get a new flea collar. He would be terribly disappointed if something ever happened to his record.

Roo made her way to his room.

The girl found that it was unlocked fortunately and the door slid open. She made her way into his room. She looked around and saw that everything was anally spotless and clean. He had pictures of feminine-figured female dog posters on his wall. One was a border collie on the beach catching a Frisbee in her mouth. Another one was a photo of poodle with the weirdest cut that Roo had ever seen.

"He's actually into stuff like this?" she mumbled under her breath.

On the nightstand, there was a picture of Colleen in her normal dog form. She was panting as she lay in the sand on the beach outside Mission Control. For her age, it was rare for Roo to know what Blitz was doing with all these pictures. She knew males only wanted one thing from females and she shuttered at the thought.

She knew that Blitz had a crush on Colleen but when she looked through his nightstand to find his record book, she found more pictures of Colleen. One was her in a bikini. Roo thought she was going to throw up again. She let out an "eeeew" and moved the photos aside to look for the book again.

When she finished going through the nightstand, she only found pictures of Colleen and other female dogs. Roo sighed and went to the other side of the room to continue her search. When she came to the dresser, she opened the first drawer and found only bitten up pieces of boxers and underwear. She blinked and thought for a moment. What were ripped up pieces of underwear doing in his first drawer? She picked up a pair of shorts with black and red poker symbols on it.

She saw something taped on the back of them and she read the description: Boxers from tushie number 124.

Roo grit her teeth in disgust and threw the shorts back into the drawer. She was going to wash her hands thoroughly after this search. She shut it and went down to the next drawer. This one was normal. It had jeans, belts, and different colored shirts and sweatshirts in them. There was red, blue, bleached out colors, and shades of brown.

She felt something under a pair of jeans. It felt rectangular. She gently picked it out from under the jeans and saw it was a photo in a case. Roo half-expected to find something inappropriate on it but she paused when she saw the photo. She angled her eyes on it.

There was the chancellor of Germany, his wife, two blonde boys that looked like twins, and there was Blitz in his regular form. The boys were hugging him around the neck. It was a warm and friendly family portrait. Roo had no idea that Blitz cared for others than besides himself.

She put the photo back under the jeans and went to the third drawer. This time, she found his record book under more pants the Doberman possessed. A smile curled on his face and she took it out. She sat on the floor and pulled a pen out of her jean pocket. She clicked it and proceeded with her plan. The girl scratched off his 899th hind biting record and wrote 999th bite mark on it.

The more she wrote in the book, his mean words "little monster" came into her head. She frowned and furrowed her brows. She decided to do something more than just write in the book. She drew in it. There were cartoons of Blitz getting hurt as he fell off a waterfall. There were pictures of him being flattened by a rock and an anvil.

She wrote "chopper face" in the book to go along with her entertainment.

The girl chuckled to herself and ripped out the last page of the book that was supposed to be Blitz's 899th hind biting. She was so into her work that she didn't hear the door slide open.

The Doberman nearly jumped in surprise when he had found someone in his room. Someone in his room touching his things and going through his personal belongings! But when he saw who it was and what she was handling, he tightened his fangs and clutched his fists at his sides. That little monster!

"**Dhat is it!"** Blitz roared.

The skin on Roo's back jumped when she was grabbed by Blitz from behind and he sat down on his bed. He turned her over on his lap and held her down. He grabbed the newspaper resting nearby on the nightstand and rolled it up.

When he was a guard dog, a rolled up newspaper meant everything for discipline.

He then proceeded to whack it on top of Roo's hind and back quarters. Roo yelped in surprise and gritted her teeth in pain. She hissed when another strike was blown and her legs began to wobble. Blitz was not going to go easy on her. If this would teach Roo anything, she would not mess with Blitz's room again. The spanking continued to go on as Blitz was getting ready for his sixth blow to her hind. It wasn't the same as biting her but this would still do, he thought to himself.

After the thirteenth blow Blitz put the rolled up and broken edged newspaper down. He was panting heavily as an exhausted Roo lay on her stomach in his lap. It wasn't until his anger swelled down that he noticed how hard he had actually struck her. Not even the Chancellor would hit his children that hard.

A flush of guilt ran down his spine and Blitz carefully picked up Roo, making sure as not to hurt her any more than he had already done. Roo began to sniffle and then her sniffles turned into soft cries. She moaned and groaned, it hurt so much.

"Shhh, das kind (child)," Blitz said as he rocked her back and forth in his arms, "I'm sorry, Roo. I'm terribly sorry."

He carried her into Exile's room. The husky left it opened for the Doberman in case Roo wanted to take a nap or if she needed something from the room. Blitz set her down on the armchair. She yelped in pain when her back touched the back of the chair. It stung her backside and rear and she wanted to get off. Blitz told her to stay in the chair or he threatened to spank her "again". It was that white lie that kept her sitting.

He went to get the first aid kit from the closet. He was hoping the Master wasn't checking up on him soon and to his surprise he wasn't. Shepherd must have been hard at work in his lab. Blitz came back into the room and knelt down in front of Roo who was still in the chair. He picked her up carefully and placed her on the bed on her stomach. She was so exhausted that she wasn't even putting up a fight.

He pulled up her shirt halfway, only to the point where he had struck her and wiped some cream onto her back with a cotton ball. He proceeded with the other areas, took bandages, and wrapped them around her backside. When he was done, Roo's back was banded with white bandages and Blitz pulled her shirt back down.

Blitz held his hands together in front of him. Exile was going to heat beam him when he got back.

At the end of the day, the Rovers came back. Hunter and Exile came to see what Blitz and Roo were doing. Blitz told them to be quiet and that Roo was sleeping in Exile's room. The husky smiled and thanked his comrade for taking care of the girl. He was a little disturbed by Blitz's gulp. Exile perked an ear in question and walked past him. He entered his room and saw Roo sleeping on her side in his bed.

He smiled endearingly at her but then his smile went away. He smelt some kind of medical cream through his nostrils and sniffed to see where it was coming from. Eventually, his nose was hanging over Roo's back and he removed the covers. He lifted up her shirt midway to see bandages tied around her backside.

"What the hell!" he snapped and swerved his head back to a frightened Blitz. The husky bared his fangs and stomped toward the cringing Doberman.

Exile grabbed hold of Blitz's collar and pulled him near his tightened fangs.

"What have you done to her?" he asked in a low tone.

"E-E-Exile, you see it vent like this. I tried to give her a timeout but she kept on acting up. Then she sabotaged my record book for how many hinds I had bitten and I-I-I-I spanked her."

"With what? A baseball bat?!"

"Nein, vith a-" Blitz gulped, "A rolled up newspaper."

Images of the group home that had mistreated Roo began to run through Exile's head. The staff allowing the child, Michelle; to chase Roo and yell threats at her. The beatings she constantly got from the other clients and Exile took her away from all that just to have her get the same treatment here?! Exile's grip on the Doberman grew tighter. He was about ready to bite the head off of Blitz before Hunter stepped in.

"Calm down, Exile," Hunter placed his hands on the husky's shoulders, "So Blitz made a mistake. And he won't do it again, will he?" Hunter gave a suspicious and stern look at the cowering Doberman.

"Y-Yah! I promise I vhon't touch her again!" he pleaded for his life.

Exile had to cool his heat vision down before he made a whole in the roof. He let go of Blitz's collar and looked down at the ground. Hunter saw Exile's defeat and sighed. "Look Exile," Hunter said, "No one in this whole headquarters really knows how to deal with kids, ya know?"

"But that mongrel has two children at home and he couldn't think of a better punishment than spanking?!" the husky snapped.

"The Chancellor sometimes spanks his kids if they misbehave. I thought it vhould have been okay," Blitz admitted to his mistake, "At least its better dhan me biting her on the tushie."

Exile placed his fists onto his hips and asked, "Just how exactly how hard did you spank her?"

"-Until the paper ripped."

That was it. Exile didn't care what his Master or Hunter, his leader, would do to him. His eyes brightened crimson and were about to heat vision the other dog until he heard a low yawn. He turned around to see Roo stretching and jolted with an "ow." Exile remembered when she thought it was bad luck to sleep in his bed and the girl proved that statement right as she hopped quickly out of the bed. She lifted up her shirt to reveal her stomach. She saw the white bandages wrapped around her stomach and back.

"What happened today?" she asked blankly, "-Oh I remember. I got my first spanking."

Hunter couldn't help but giggle. Her raven curly hair was undone and she looked like _Rosanne _from the show when the older woman didn't brush her hair. The little girl had Exile's blanket draping around her. To the six foot and a half tall husky, that blanket looked humongous on her. Her eyes drooped from being in a nap for the last three hours.

Exile rushed over to ask if Roo was okay. He fussed over her and asked if he could see her back without the bandages on. He asked if she needed to see a doctor. He asked her if she needed to go to the hospital even.

Roo only replied with a deep and loud yawn.

"Exile, I'm too tired for all that," Roo walked past him, rubbing her tired left eye.

"Roo, I'm so sorry for vhat I did. I didn't mean to-"

"What?" Roo cut off Blitz. She looked behind her to get a quick glimpse of her soar rear end and looked back up at Blitz. "You mean for what happened earlier? I deserved it."

Blitz lowered his ears and asked a "huh?"

"I was being a brat and I deserved it. I'd beat someone too if they messed with my stuff."

Roo walked past Blitz and Hunter and made her way down the hall. When Exile asked where she was going, the girl answered she was going to the kitchen. "I'm hungry," she said simply.

Hunter and Blitz stared confusedly at the girl. She was just spanked no less than three hours ago with a newspaper and needed a first aid kit afterwards. She was crying and hissing in pain but after the end of the day, she came right back. She didn't seem affected by the whole thing at all.

"Blitz, how hard did you exactly hit her? Did you hit her on the head?" Hunter asked.

Blitz shook his head, "Nein. But I'm glad that Exile's not going to kill me now."

TigerTulip: Describing Blitz's room was one of the hardest parts of this story. I decided to have Blitz spank her with a rolled up newspaper instead of a spoon or switch because it seemed to make more sense for a dog's point of view for a spanking technique. As for Roo taking it easy on Blitz spanking her, there will be an explanation on that in the next chapter. Thank you.


	4. Muzzles and Cuddles

TigerTulip: I've had one hell of a week. I'm rating this story now Teen because there's going to be some language and violence in this fanfiction that I feel wouldn't be appropriate for younger readers. This chapter is dedicated to my older brother for his birthday. He's never heard of Road Rovers but when I showed him the first episode he though he would give this chapter a try and read it. He actually liked it. Hopefully, I got one more person interested in the Road Rover fanbase. Anyways, enjoy!

**Muzzles and Cuddles**

After the whole "spanking" incident, Exile made sure that Blitz would not babysit Roo ever again. Colleen and Roo had started becoming sisters in the last three days. After Colleen had cooled down and sped a few days in England, she started to come around to the ten-year-old. The girls began to do each other's hair and Colleen showed her how to put her hair back in a fish tail design.

It was when they were doing hair that Colleen found out what African Americans used in their hair. They used shaved shea butter sometimes and oils and greases to keep their hair from getting split ends. Their scalps could get very dry as well and they used the oils to keep their scalps moist. Roo loved putting her hair back into braids and then tying them up like pigtails. She looked like Wendy from _The Wizard of Oz _when she was done with her hair.

Roo told Colleen that her Uncle, Ron, was from France originally. His mother was African and his father was white and French. Her uncle knew how to speak French and English. By the time Roo's biological father came around, they had already moved out of France and into the states.

Roo's father's name was Bernard and her mother's name was Jacklyn. Jacklyn was a Haitian American living in Maine. The cold weather from the Caribbean island was a remarkable difference to her mother. Never in her life had she ever seen snow. She took her American name when her family moved from the island to the US when she was only around Roo's age.

When Roo was first born, she didn't know much of her parent's past. It wasn't until they passed away at her age of five that she found out more about them. Roo's Uncle Ron took her in and told her stories of what they were like and where they had come from. He told Roo that no matter where you come from, you should always be grateful for who you are and to never give up.

Roo loved her uncle so much.

"And then he says that I'm part Haitian, African, and French. But my country is and always will be America," Roo smiled as she looked down at Colleen. She was busy brushing the collie's hair.

"That's a good thing Roo," Colleen replied, "You should always be proud of which country you come from. Countries can be different from each other in many ways. Take England an' America for example. Fads run very quickly through England while in America, they tend t' be much longer."

"They do?" Roo asked.

"Yup, one day you could 'ave your 'air one style and in the next couple of weeks there could be a whole new style for ya ta try."

"Yeah?"

"Uh-huh and in England instead of money 'ere in the US we use pound sterling as our currency or also called euros."

"Yeah—" Roo scratched her head in confusion. This was a lot of information for her. She grew self-conscious and didn't want to sound dumb so she pretend to nod her head and agree with whatever the collie said next.

"And in Russia where Exile comes from; they 'ave boats, planes, an' even sled dogs to 'elp deliver food an' supplies to people. Let's see, the Opera there is really cultural an' it snows a lot and I mean **a lot**.

"Uh huh-does it snow as much as in Maine?"

The collie laughed and said, "Oh much more kiddo. Much more! Ya know Exile used t' be a sled dog 'imself. 'E got supplies t' town t' town back in Siberia." A devious smile then appeared to her face when Roo was done brushing her. She looked at the girl and said, "It proves 'ow strong your "papa" is."

A frown came to Roo's face and it turned into anger. She put the brush down and felt that her belly was on fire. She got off the couch and stomped away. Colleen watched in rather confusion as the girl stormed out of the communion room.

"He's not my "dad" and never will be!" Roo snapped and the sliding door closed behind her.

Roo sat in a darkened part of the hallway and was crying softly to herself. She knew Colleen was only joking but that joke got to Roo's heart. She held her clutched fists in her lap and was staring intently at the ground. Her hind and back were still sore from Blitz's spanking and she felt like screaming in pain. That stupid dog hurt her! And she felt it was her duty to put on a happy face, say it was nothing, and to forget all about it?

_I'm gonna kill that bitch! I'm gonna kill that bitch! _

The disturbing images of Michelle ran through her head next. Her fists coming at Roo and her bloody eyes set on her as a target. The night before that day, Roo had kicked one of Michelle's favorite male staff members in the crotch. The staff's name was Chaz. Roo was trying to get away from the group home and Chaz ended up following her. He called her names like "worthless" and "hopeless" the entire time and threatened to call the police because she had left the property.

"_Sorry I'm not your dog!" Roo turned around and snapped at him._

"_You might as well be a dog the way you always run away all the time!" Chaz lowered his eyelids midway and gave her a sarcastic look._

"_Fine! Imma dog. Bark! Bark! I'm your dog and you're my master!" _

"_**That's right!" **_

_Roo lost it as that point. She ran up to him, careful as not to slip on the snow and grabbed hold of the man's chest. She lifted her leg up and plowed her kneecap right into his private area. Chaz went down like a soldier shot in war. _

_He had then dragged the girl back to the group home and reported assault on the little girl he had terrorized to the police. Luckily, Roo wasn't charged with anything because of her age but she was told that if it was reported she would leave the premises again, she'd have a tracking device placed around her ankle. Unluckily, Michelle heard word of this. Nothing was private when you lived in an apartment with eight other out of control kids. _

_Roo was walking down the staircase on the patio and she was confronted by Michelle. _

"_So you like hurting people?!" she demanded._

"_He deserved it!" Roo told her honest truth._

"_Don't you talk back to me like that you little bitch!"_

"_You know, I really can't stand his and your ugly, beastly mouths." _

_Michelle's face turned bright red and her teeth bit down on her bottom lip. She screamed loud like a tea kettle boiling. She waited for Rue to turn her back on her and she chased after her prey. She grabbed hold of Roo's hair, surprising her and knocked her off the last step. Roo was on her stomach on the ground and Michelle got on top of her and pulled the girl by her hair so she would be on her back. _

_She __**wanted **__Roo to face her. _

_Michelle started beating Roo's face in with her balled Hulk like hands and pulled her hair wildly. Roo grabbed hold of her shirt and ripped it in half by accident as she struggled to get the thirteen year old off of her. Michelle weighed about a better fifty pounds more than Roo. It was hard for the girl to fight back. Eventually, after three minutes of watching the action in front of them, the staff intervened It was like as if they wanted to see Roo and Michelle fight. _

_It was savagery. _

"_Get this bitch off me!" Michelle screamed as the staff removed her, "Get her off me!" She spat on top of Roo's chest and Roo spat back. Michelle tried to go at her again but was finally pulled off by the adults._

Roo opened her eyes from the living day nightmare and she cried more into her hands. Why did she have to torment herself on all these bad memories? She was only ten years old and has been through so much hell. Her parents dead, her uncle not here, and she survived so much through the whole TLC process. Where was she going to be when she was fifteen?

The truth was; Roo didn't want to runaway anymore. She felt she was sinning by giving all this control over her life from her past.

She began to hear wheeling into the room and looked up. She quickly wiped away her tears and tried to put on a brave face. She got up to see Dr. Shepherd coming into the hallway with Muzzle in his restraints.

"Roo, are you okay?" the man asked.

"Y-Yes," Roo tried to hold back her tears.

"Well—if anything is bothering you, let me know okay," he said.

"You don't have to worry about that," she lied.

The professor looked around the room and back to Roo.

"Who were you talking to?"

"What?"

Roo didn't realize she was talking out loud to herself. What did she say? She hoped she didn't say anything of her past for her new friends to find out.

"Why don't you come with me," Dr. Shepherd motioned with his hand for the girl to come. Roo obeyed and walked with the older man down to the garden. He wanted to get her out of the headquarters as much as possible. It wasn't healthy for a child to be locked up inside all day. They made their way into the garden and sat down on a wooden bench nearby.

Roo looked at Shepherd in surprise as he began to undo Muzzle's muzzle and restraints. She asked him if that was such a good idea. Shepherd only replied with a chuckle and said that it would be fine. When he took the muzzle off of the Rottweiler, to the girl's surprise, the dog didn't rush out of his strait jacket as she had seen on her first say meeting the Rovers.

He calmly fell on all fours and turned to be with his master.

Muzzle licked Shepherd's hand and laid his head down onto his lap.

Roo hesitantly tried to pet the dog's ears like Shepherd had done before her. She was scared to get bitten on account if the last time she tried to interact with Muzzle. Hunter and blitz warned her that Muzzle could be really dangerous if you motioned to him or did the wrong thing. Dr. Shepherd smiled and took her hand into his and placed it on top of the Rottweiler's head.

"He likes it when you rub behind his neck and ears," he showed her.

The girl felt her stomach going into her throat and she smiled nervously. She began to scratch muzzle by herself and she got more into it, so did Muzzle. The dog rolled onto his back and kicked his legs in the air. Roo looked to Shepherd to see if she could and he nodded approvingly.

Roo got down on the ground on her knees and giggled as she rubbed Muzzle on the stomach. The dog wagged his stubby tail and licked her hands sweetly. Roo continued to inch forward and back with her hands on his tummy and giggled again when the dog barked happily.

Shepherd watched the two until he got a call on his cell phone. He took it out of his pocket and put the speaker to his lips.

"Yes-I see—yes I see. Okay I'll be right there."

He put the cell away and told Roo that he needed to go back to his lab and go on the communicator with Hunter. The Road Rovers were out on a mission trying to stop their arch-enemy called Dr. Parvo and his assistant Groomer from kidnapping other dogs and turning them into Cano-Mutates. Roo never really understood who this Dr. Parvo and Groomer were.

"They're just bad people you don't want to mix with," Shepherd explained and got up. He stopped in his tracks and looked back at Muzzle deciding whether or not to put him back into his restraints. Roo was a tiny girl and Muzzle could pose a threat to her if he wasn't there to make sure the dog didn't try to pull anything.

"Scout," he asked, "Will you be okay with Roo here without your restraints on?"

The dog barked and jumped up and down.

"How can I take that as a yes," Shepherd wished the Dogmifier had worked on his pet in the past so he could understand him now.

"We'll be fine," Roo gave him baby doll eyes as she wrapped her arms around Muzzle's neck motioning a hug.

"Well—alright, but I'm only going to be gone for fifteen minutes. I'll keep the monitors on so that I can watch to see if Muzzle doesn't try anything. But if he does—"he gave a dog whistle into Roo's hand "—blow on that and he'll stop right in his tracks."

"Okay," Roo nodded and placed the whistle into her pocket. She hugged Muzzle around the neck again. Her charms never failed unless she was misbehaving. "We'll have fun right Muzzle?"

The dog simply lolled his tongue out panting.

With a weary frown, the professor left the girl and dog in the garden alone, not knowing what mischief they were going to get into.

When he was gone, Roo got up and picked up a stick to wave in front of Muzzle's face. At first the dog didn't respond, his eyes were too focused on his master leaving. He then noticed the stick and barked excitedly. "You want it?" Roo asked, "Okay, Muzzle, go fetch!"

She tossed the stick about ten feet away and the Rottweiler ran after it. He jumped a good distance in the air and chomped the inch-thick stick in half with his jaws. Roo flinched in fear at how powerful his bite was and stood back when the Rottweiler came back. He sat down panting and rested a paw on her leg. He nudged her again and again wanting her to find another stick for him to devour. Roo did as she was "told" and this time found a two-inch thick stick. She tossed that and Muzzle chased it and did the same to the other stick he had before.

Roo looked at Muzzle in disbelief and wanted to do a test on how strong muzzle's jaw power really was. She grabbed hold of a coconut this time and tossed it into the bushes.

The dog leapt into the tropical plant and pulled out the coconut. He dropped it between his forepaws and began to chew aggressively. The coconut cracked in less than two minutes and Muzzle greedily lapped up the meat and milk inside. There was so much drool that Roo couldn't tell what was the white part of the nut or if it was drool.

Her eyebrows twitched and she dropped her jaw in absolute thought of her cracking and breaking her teeth if she tried to do what Muzzle was doing right now.

"Muzzle, you're the bravest mutt I've ever known."

When the dog was finished with the coconut he walked back over to Roo and sat down patiently, waiting for whatever she was going to toss next. Roo sat on her rear to pet him but jumped back up when she felt the stringing tang when her hind connected to the ground.

"Ow! Stupid Blitz!"

The dog blinked and titled his head in confusion.

"Oh, Muzzle, it was just Blitz a while ago. That Doberman beat me with a newspaper and now my butt is soar."

The dog bared his fangs and growled angrily at the mention of Blitz's name. Roo laughed and asked him if he hated the Doberman too. The Rottweiler whimsically nodded his head in agreement. The two then decided to play again.

They would do it standing up since Roo couldn't sit down. She walked Muzzle down to the beach and she watched as the dog ran into the rolling waves. Roo thought about jumping in with him. She remembered she needed a bathing suit but she didn't have one. But the water looked so much fun. She decided to go with the flow and leapt into the water with just her t-shirt and shorts on. Muzzle got out of the way where she landed and swam back to Roo when she was in the water.

Roo laughed and splashed water on Muzzle. The dog opened his mouth crazily trying to catch the salt water in his mouth. He then paddled forward and jumped onto Roo who gasped in surprise. They both went under water and came back up. Roo gasped for breath when she came up while Muzzle began to kiss her on her arm.

"Aww. You have kissies for me?" she asked sweetly as she rubbed his face. She made funny expressions with his wrinkly face. She pulled his cheeks outward so he looked overweight in the face. She pulled back his jowls so he'd be smiling a goofy grin. Then she folded back his floppy ears so his ears were inside out. Roo loved doing this to dogs. There was a part of her that loved teasing dogs like this.

Eventually, Muzzle got irritated and tried to bite her hand.

Roo screamed, losing balance, and fell back into the water. She got up quickly just in case Muzzle was going to jump on top of her but he didn't. One warning bite was enough for the nut. Roo learned to laugh her fear off and thought it was only fair to do the same to hair face for Muzzle's entertainment. She pulled back her nose and stuck her tongue out at the puzzled dog. She then mushed her face together and pulled back her cheeks. She looked like a Muppet by the time she was done trying to get a reaction out of Muzzle.

The dog sat back and a loud bark bellowed through his chest.

He jumped up and placed his front paws onto Roo's shoulders and brought her down again into the ocean. He didn't know why Roo was acting this crazy, crazy even for him.

"Maybe I scared you and didn't know it," she stated.

The two then decided to get out of the water. Roo's back was getting a burning sensation from all the salt water and they headed to shore. They continued to play on the beach from day light to sundown. The sky was blood orange with a golden sphere saying goodnight to their part of the world. Roo breathed in and out peacefully.

They had collected seashells on the shore and Roo "showed" Muzzle how to make necklaces and bracelets out of them. By the end of the day, they made two bracelets and a necklace with oyster's shells and white shells. Muzzle showed Roo his bite again as her chewed the bark off of a palm tree. Roo made sure to stand back. Roo built sandcastles and Muzzle and her trampled them back into the sand. They decided to dig a deep whole too. They made it five feet down and Roo hatched an idea. She ran into the base and brought out a huge towel. They made the sand pit into a secret hideout and watched as the sun went down across the reflecting ocean.

The Rovers came home.

They were all tired and wanted to go straight to bed. Hunter stretched his muscles while Colleen yawned. Blitz complained that his fangs with soar from biting everything in sight and Shag wanted to eat. Exile was the only one that had to do something before going to bed. He looked in the communion room, kitchen, and his room but could not find Roo anywhere.

He went to see if his Master knew where Roo was only to find a distraught man searching every video camera on the monitor for something.

"Uhh—Master? Is everything okey-dokey?" he asked

"Oh um—Exile," the professor turned around to see the husky, "What are you doing back so early?"

"It is ten at night Master, of course we are going to be done with mission by now," Exile answered. He felt this moment was just as awkward as the ones when he was with Blitz. "—Do you know where Roo is by chance? I can't find her anywhere."

"Well, I—I can't find her Exile."

"What?!"

I left her with Muzzle for a half hour and now I can't find either of them."

"You left her with **Muzzle**?!"

"—Without his restraints on."

"Master, have you gone mad?! She could have been eaten by now!"

"I'm trying everything I can to spot them Exile. I told them I was going to watch them on the monitoring cameras but then Parvo and Groomer had to dislodge your ship and I had to send you repairs and—this is not good."

"You're telling me!"

The Rovers and Shepherd went to look everywhere for Roo and Muzzle. Some searched high and low in the base while some of them went to look in the garden. They then tried to look out on the beach. Hunter was sniffing the trail out until he found Muzzle's scent. He called for the Rovers to follow him and they made their way to the opposite side of the beach.

"The scent is sort of masked but-"

"Rarh rarh rarhll!" Shag pointed to the ground to see his beach towel on the sand.

He picked it up and looked from the towel to a hole in the ground. It was not that deep. Five feet at the latest and the Rovers and Shepherd peered in. They smiled warmly at what they saw.

In the hole was Roo curled up into a fetal position with her arms wrapped around Muzzle's neck.

TigerTulip: I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter and the next one will be posted as soon as I can. Thank you to Rogue Rover and GrimlockX4 for reviewing and all the people who read on to this chapter. If you see any typos please PM me or leave a comment so I can revise the chapter. Thank you.


	5. Sugar Boom!

TigerTulip: Sorry I haven't updated for a while. Busy with work and all that stuff. Well Enjoy!

**Sugar Boom!**

Exile stared at Roo who was twitching impatiently. She looked around the room as if something was going to come out at her any moment. Her skin was unusually pale and she looked tired but she was wide awake. She still kept on shaking wildly.

Was she nervous? Was she tired? The husky didn't know.

When she got up, she tripped on her right foot and fell toward the ground. Exile caught her and lifted her up. "What is it Roo?" he asked, "Why are you so shaky in the knees?"

Roo smiled happily and hugged him. She snuggled her face into his warm chest and cooed. "So fluffy," she murmured, "You're so fluffy Exile, you know that right?"

"Umm—sure little one."

He decided to see if she would take a nap. Maybe that would settle her down. He took her to their room and turned on the light. Roo was still laughing and giggling. She kept on twitching and talking gibberish. Roo had a hard time sleeping for the last few nights because of her back. Maybe if Exile laid her on her stomach it would help soothe her to sleep faster. He went over to the cot they had set up for her as a bed and he placed her down.

Exile wasn't wearing his usual Road Rovers uniform. He wore jeans with a white t-shirt on. It was too hot to wear the usual uniform and Exile thought if he was going to be a Canosapian he might as well take advantage of wearing different clothes.

There were times Exile would wake up and find Roo not in the room. He mainly found her in the kitchen with Shag. She was late night snacking with him and the two would devour everything from the pizza, fruit, and even Shag tried to offer his secret recipe food to her. Exile had to stop him because Roo would not have been fond of the taste and what it was, toilet water.

"It's time for your nap," he said as he tucked her in.

"But I'm not sleepy," Roo whined.

"Well since you haven't slept at night, you're going to take naps in the day to make up for it," Exile ordered.

When Exile turned the light off and left the room, Roo opened one eye to see if he were gone. She then jumped off the cot and reached under the bedside. She pulled out a cinnamon sugar latte from Dunkin Donuts she had gotten earlier that morning from Shag.

* * *

Exile came back to the room to see how Roo was doing. It had been an hour and he wanted to see if she were ready to eat lunch. He turned on the lights and his brows narrowed in disgust when he found that the sheets and blankets were on the floor instead of on the cot. Roo wasn't there either.

"She disobeyed a direct order—again," he sighed and marched out of his room to find her.

Little did Exile know was that Roo was having her own little adventure. She and Shag were in the kitchen again. Shag was cooking up his Kung POW Chicken recipe with his secret ingredient. The others were around the table enjoying the meal. Roo was too busy in her little mind to wonder why the dogs loved toilet water so much.

She was trying to make herself a bagel pizza but her hands kept on shaking. Her foot tapped impatiently. She didn't want to make a pizza bagel. All she wanted on her diet at that moment was cappuccino, coffee, hot or iced, and lattes. She had already drank her second coffee that morning and it was only 11:30 a.m.

"Shag," she pulled on the sheepdog's long fur.

"Ruh?" the dog looked down at the coffee craving child, "Rhaw ri rir Roo?"

"Um—can we go to Dunkin's right now?" she gave him a toothy smile.

"Rur? Ro!" Shag shook his head.

They had just been there this morning and he didn't want to have to compete with fast food with his "gormei" food. There was only one sense of food in this kitchen and it was his—or sometimes the caterers. Whichever Shag was in the mood for. Shag knew that fast food wasn't good either in general for whatever age group. He pulled up a bowl and placed some of the Kung POW Chicken into the bowl and gave it to Roo.

"Oh boy—toilet water supreme," she sarcastically mumbled.

She took the bowl over to where the Rovers sat and she placed the bowl down on the table. She sat in the chair next to Colleen and pushed her bowl away from her sight. She laid her chin on the table and covered her head with her arms. She groaned.

"What's with you?" Colleen pointed at Roo with her spoon.

"I'm not a dog," Roo explained, "I don't eat things that've been marinated in crapper water."

Colleen's eyes grew to the size of tennis balls and she looked down at her bowl. She turned the other way and felt like gagging. "Oooohhhh! Shaaag! I told y' not to put toilet water in my food when y' cook it!" she spat.

"Rorry," Shag put his ladle back down into his chicken.

"Speaking of toilets, someone has a potty mouth dis morning," Blitz looked up from lapping up the Kung POW Chicken in his bowl. He noted Roo's use of words "crapper water" instead of toilet water. Hunter told Blitz to leave the kid alone and the golden retriever went on to finishing his meal.

"I'm just tired and I need something to keep me aw—"

"There you are!"

Exile came into the kitchen and walked right up to Roo. He was about to bring her back to their room to finish their nap until he smelt something. It was Shag's cooking and the smell immediately brought the word "food" to the husky's mind. He decided to forget about Roo's nap for the moment and his animal instincts kicked in. He sat down next to Roo and Colleen and took Roo's bowl that was left untouched. He began to slurp it up without any eating utensils.

Roo saw her chance and slowly crept out of the chair. She tiptoed as quietly as she could out of the room before Exile noticed she was gone. Her skin jolted when she felt a hand grab her from behind by the shirt. It was Exile who still had his face in the bowl.

After lunch was over, Exile brought Roo to his good old friend Professor Sniffer. Maybe he would know what was going on with Roo's odd sleep patterns. The girl didn't want to go. She had to keep her coffee craving a secret from Exile. He would not permit it if he were to ever find out.

"You wanna play fetch?" she asked to stall him.

"Nyet."

"You wanna Pupperoni?"

"N—maybe later."

"You wanna put me down so I can walk by myself? And not run away?"

"Nyet."

After they waited in Professor Hubert's lab for a small amount of time, the bloodhound came in. He had books upon books stacked in his arms. He set the books down on a table nearby and greeted his friend.

"Oh, Exile, good to see you m'boy. What can I do for y—Who's this?"

The bloodhound looked straight at Roo who was sitting and partly "restrained" in Exile's lap. He held her arms down as he bear hugged her to keep Roo from escaping. Exile explained that she was not sleeping and maybe it was something that she was eating that kept her up. "Hmmm Let me see," professor Hubert bent down and tried to get a good scent on Roo.

Professor Hubert got done doing his inspection and stood up straight. "I smell sugar, whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and oh yes, and caffeine," he pronounced.

"Caffeine?" Exile asked. He had never heard of that English word before.

"Or to put it simply; coffee."

"Who gave you coffee?" Exile demanded to know from Roo.

"Is everything fun bad for me?" she asked.

"When it comes to your health; yes."

"I'm not being affected by it at all Exile."

"Then why can you not sleep? And look, you are twitching again."

"No I'm—tch—not."

"How many days has she been on caffeine for?" Professor Hubert asked.

"Well, she hasn't been sleeping for the last three days so I guess—that long."

Roo's head started to buzz. Her legs felt like kicking but they went no where. She felt like she was about to faint. Was this a caffeine fit? She thought to herself. She tried to get off of Exile's lap but the husky would not let her down. He simply tightened a little on his grip of her.

"What's with this guy and not wanting to let me walk?" Roo mumbled under her breath.

"Because I know that you would run away," Exile answered.

"Okay, I don't run away all the time, all right!" Roo threw her arms up into the air in frustration.

Just one sip, just one sip of a sugared latte would do her justice right now.

Professor Hubert eyed Roo's odd behavior and squint his eyes at her to get a better look. He cradled his chin in his left hand and shook his head. He took off his glasses and wiped them clean with his glasses wipe. He put the handkerchief back into his right pocket. "Well, I can see where the obsessive kicking, twitching, and irritation are coming from; it's a withdrawal of caffeine. Her body is screaming to her that she needs that coffee right now. And on the other side too, her body is also screaming for sleep."

"Dah," Exile scratched his head, not knowing what to do. He stood up with an exhausted Roo in his arms, "But what can we do about that? The caffeine craving part I mean."

"I have no idea, Exile. After all, I am only a professor in science and animal facts, not human."

Exile walked back outside the lab where Hunter was waiting for the both of them.

"So what's up with kiddo?" he asked as he tossed a tennis ball up and down in his hand.

"Tiiired," she mumbled as she was trying to get Exile to set her down.

Exile thought it would be fine to put her down at that moment and set her on her feet. The ten-year-old stared up discombobulated up at the ceiling. She was seeing particles right in front of her. Hunter raised a hand in front of her to see if she were okay. Roo wasn't responding. Instead, she was circling back and forth trying to find balance on her two feet. She fell forward onto her stomach and Exile and Hunter gasped in shock.

* * *

Roo woke up in her bed. Her hand rested on her chest and she was still seeing sparkles in the air. She slowly got up and groaned. That caffeine withdrawal had given her a headache. The girl carefully made her way out of the cot and on to the floor. She sat on the ground for a little while and scanned to see where Exile was. The husky was no where to be seen. She looked at the clock. It was military time. Damn.

The girl got up and clumsily and groggily made her way over to where the bathroom was. She closed the door and when she was done, flushed the toilet, and came out. She didn't remember much but that was probably her fourth time visiting the bathroom during her nap. Coffee made you pee like crazy. She had just found that out in the last three days of her caffeine fix. It made you full too. It was like a full meal all in one.

She shut the door behind her and opened Exile's door leading out into the hallway.

She couldn't find anyone so she went down to the communion room. She was so busy rubbing her eyes that she bumped into something. It felt like furry brick wall. She fell onto her rear and grunted. Shaking her head, she looked up to see none other than Shag.

"Roo, roo roray?" he kneeled over the little girl in comparison to him.

"Yeah, Shag. Um—I'm okay."

She thought he asked her if she were okay.

"Shag, I think that trip to the Dunkin' Donuts wasn't such a good idea, you know what I mean? I've had a caffeine fit all day long. And I was chugging them so much, that I couldn't sleep for the last three days."

"Ro rars ra rame. Ruz ri reff ru rurins ra ror roo ra roree," Shag said as he pulled out her weakness in his hand. A brown sugar cinnamon latte with whip cream and caramel drizzle on it.

Roo stared eyed-wide up at the drink from the ground. She was exhausted and she knew if she had this drink then she'd start all over from square one. Exile would probably yell at her or she would get another spanking from Blitz. So many negative conclusions ran through her head but Roo hissed in the end saying, "Aw, screw it!"

* * *

Hunter and the other Rovers were in the communion room, waiting for Shag to be done with dinner. When they heard the bell ring they all got up and went into the kitchen. Exile had left Roo to sleep off her headache and was eager for the time he had for himself. Finally this phase of hers was almost going to be over.

When the Rovers entered the kitchen, they were greeted by a disturbing sight.

In the middle of the room, there was Shag. He was bewildered and shocked. He chased around the hyper-caffeinated child that was running around the kitchen. She was knocking things off the shelf and table either by accident or fun.

"Ya gotta catch me!" she laughed, "Like Exile before bed. Over and over again!"

Shag was about ready to lose all of his marbles.

The Rovers looked to a distraught Exile. The husky pricked his ears and let out a yowl, "ROOOOO!"

TigerTulip: I can honestly say, I love the brown sugar cinnamon lattes at Dunkins' but I'm not that rich to afford it everyday. So I wanted Roo to have a little fun with her lattes! lol. Thanks for everyone who viewed and reviewed over the last few chapters.


	6. Mother Russia

**TigerTulip:** I'd like to thank all my readers and reviewers who have kept up with my story so far. I know the wait has been long but I've finally gotten back into my fanfiction writing. As for those who don't know, Exile's owner is the Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin. He was a real man along with the first lady Naina Yeltsin. They aren't characters I've made up. They were people from reality. I loved the fact that the creators actually took real world leaders and added them into their cartoon as the owners of the Road Rovers. Enjoy!

**Mother Russia  
**

It had been a whole month now that Roo was taken in by Shepherd and the Rovers. Shepherd was beginning to worry that if he continued to leave Roo under the care of Exile. The professor did notice that the husky was getting rather tired. Even though the ten-year-old brought joy and happiness to the once stern husky, he looked rather ragged and slumped over from time to time.

"Master, have you ever had children?" Exile asked.

That question threw the professor off.

"Um, no Exile. Why do you ask?"

"Never married even?"

Shepherd blinked as he stared down at the weapon he was repairing from Shag's latest accident. He never took his eyes off it for the last two minutes. His wife Mary. Oh how they loved each other in the beginning. Shepherd was a very shy young man and Mary was full of life. They met in in the College of Sciences and Tech in California. She was studying to be a zoologist and he was on his way to making advanced technology for the good of the world. He remembered when he was in a rush to get to his next class.

He accidentally bumped into her and they both dropped their books.

Mary had never noticed Shepherd before in class and this was her first glance into his face. They smiled and laughed.

They went on a month later and all was water under the bridge from there with their relationship.

It was the seventies. Everyone was young and wanted to have fun. They went to parties and listened to their favorite music. It was when they turned into adults that things went downhill. Mary was born infernal. She could not produce eggs to have children. They tried everything from operations to odd foreign recipes but nothing worked.

Mary began to go into a depressive state and didn't talk to her husband for some time. Shepherd was struggling too. When the led scientists heard his theories on wanting to turn animals into homosapian-like creatures, they thought he was insane and laughed in his face. He lost complete funding and was left for worse.

Mary was concerned about this and tried to confront Shepherd one night. She pleaded him for them not to move to Morocco, New Mexico for him to try and continue his work.

"Why can't you just accept you can't pervert nature like that?! I'm sorry, but I can't stay by your side if you keep on doing this, Will. I'm leaving."

All she did was leave her wedding ring on the table.

Shepherd went into a serious case of depression that following year. The lead scientists saying his dreams were false and the love of his wife leaving him for good. Shepherd managed through medication and therapy and eventually got back onto his feet but he still carried his scars.

Exile was taking his Master's silent response as a bad sign.

"Is something wrong Master?" he asked.

"No Exile, I'm fine—I'm fine. If you want my opinion on children, they need a lot a attention and activities. You can never give them too much attention at this age."

"I am not saying she is like daughter to me but I am starting to get this feeling that I think of her as my own pup. I've never had pups before but I think I am starting to know what it is like to have one."

Shepherd smiled warmly at what Exile had to say. He knew the husky for over two years now and knew that even though he was stern, he loved to joke around and some points. Even make riddles for his friends to answer. Shepherd believed Roo was helping the dog more than he even knew. Maybe even to the point on him deciding on finding a mate and having puppies of his own.

"I've even thought about taking her to Russia to see where I come from. And you know, to see my mother again for my own gain."

"Sounds like a good idea. When do you want to take her?"

Exile looked up at him in disbelief. Taking a child to a foreign country sounded like difficulty to the husky without the proper materials. Anything could go wrong. What if Roo got hurt? He then thought that he was being too over protective and shook his head to shake it off.

"Yes, I think you should take Roo to Russia. Get her to see what it's like in different areas of the world."

"Dah—but how?"

"You can take the Cloud Rover."

"Not bad idea, I'll just see if other comrades want to come too and—"

"Exile, I was thinking just you and Roo should go for this trip."

The husky gulped nervously. Him alone with the little girl that brought him worries about what he was doing with his life?

"Yes, it will be fine. I'll tell them that they can go home for the day. There's nothing going on today anyways. So go, get. Go take Roo with you on your trip to your homeland and have her see what it's like."

Exile nodded, thanked his Master, and left to go get ready for their trip. He had to make sure Roo was able to go first before he started packing. He didn't give away exactly where they were going. He just asked her if she wanted to go somewhere with him. She agreed and asked if she could help with anything to get ready. He said "nyet" and told her to just dress warmly. He wanted this to be a surprise for her.

He walked down to the Sky Rover. He made sure there was enough water and food in the kitchen area of the hover crafter. He packed only a few supplies. He packed a carrying sled in the cargo bay and a lead. The husky wanted to see if Roo would like to go on an actual sled ride through the Russian tundra. Exile smiled in his head. This was going to be similar to when he would pull supplies and his old master through snowy storms to the next town back in Siberia.

When he was set with making sure everything was all set, he came back to see if Roo was ready.

The ten-year-old was eager to go on the Sky Rover. She had never seen the Launch Room of Mission Control where they had every machine that helped the Rovers on their missions. Exile led her into the room and smiled down at her endearingly. Roo knew that she was allowed to look but not touch, no matter how much she wanted to try out the motorcycles. Then Exile showed her theSky Rover and opened the front entranced to it with a remote. A stand came down and the two walked up into the hover crafter.

When they were ready to leave, the top to the base was opened and they flew out of the base with ease.

Exile was amused at how easily Roo was entertained by the flight. She pointed out the different scenery below and couldn't believe they were higher than the mountains. Exile would put the crafter on autopilot and he would show her the name of the ocean below that separated Europe from the Americas. When they got to the border of Europe, he showed her the Mediterranean ocean and that some cities in Italy were covered in complete water. When they reached the Bosnia, Russia; Exile told Roo to buckle up for the landing.

She did as she was told and she was glad for listening. The landing was rather bumpy. Exile had a hard time finding a good landing spot since there was so much snow and the latitude of the ground was unpredictable. When they landed, Roo entered out into the winter land.

Roo yelped in surprise when she fell lower-chest-deep into the snow below her. She struggled to get out but to no avail. The snow was at least three feet below and she was going nowhere. Exile didn't realize how deep the snow was until he got out and saw Roo. He couldn't hold in his amusement anymore and bellowed a hardy laugh. Roo pouted and told him to help her out. Exile left her for a second to her surprise and went to the cargo hold of the ship. He came out with the sled and lead that he had with him.

He set the sled on the snow and picked up Roo. He placed her in the sled and began to pull on the lead. The snow was easier for Exile to move in and he pulled Roo in the sled behind him.

"Whoa!" Roo said, "How can this sled stay like this above the snow?!"

"How can snowshoes stay above five-feet-deep-snow?" Exile laughed at his own joke.

"Where are we exactly?"

"We are in Russia little one."

"No wonder you told me to dress warmly."

* * *

Boris Yeltsin and his wife Naina were in their car on their way to Siberia. They had an escort by their Russian officers and were in a hurry. The Russian president was a busy man at that. He was coming to Siberia for a business meeting with a fellow autocrat. Economy and political views were harsh in the Siberian lands and Yeltsin was coming to help settle some of these problems.

He had already resolved some low economy and unfair political views in his part of Russia and the president wanted to expand his ideas to the rest of Russia.

His wife was busy putting on lipstick in the back seat of the convertible. He finished talking on his cell phone and placed it down next to his side. The problems of Siberia were a difficult one. It would take all his strength to help fix them. The man looked to his wife and asked her what she was doing. She simply said she was tired of the long car drive and that she was prepping herself for the meeting.

(I may have been trying to settle things in Bosnia but Siberia will be a tough match) Yeltsin sighed, as he spoke in Russian, (Siberia is still a wild part of Russia. There's more forest than city in it. At least back home I could do something with civilization but out here—) the man was cut off by a sound that reflected thunder.

Boris and Naina screamed when the car's tires swerved out of control. The driver tried his best to get an upper hand on the vehicle but they sped out of control off the road and landed in a pit in the road. Snow was dropping on the top of the car from outside and the wind whipped by. Everything was silent. The Russian officers stopped their cars and got out of them to go check on their president and first lady.

Yeltsin gasped for air in panic as he tried to recollect himself. He shook his head and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He thought for a moment that they were under attacked by terrorists for a moment and remained still. His skin crawled as he kept his eyes focused on the mirror outside.

Just then, he remembered he wasn't alone in the car.

Boris blinked and stated, (Naina—Naina, my love, are you alright?!)

(I—I think so) the woman achingly touched her head. Her husband came up from behind her and helped her up from the floor.

(What in the name of Mother Russia was that?) Boris looked back to the window. The man went over to see how their driver was doing and placed a hand on his shoulder. He shook him violently only to remove his hand when he saw that the man wasn't moving. Instead, he looked into the mirror and saw that the man was dead!

Blood swelled from shards of glass imbedded into his forehead and face; his glazed eyes still in a spot of intense fear before he met his maker.

The silence broke when their security opened the door of the downed car. They aided the president and first lady out of the convertible and toward the center of the road. They were cocking their guns incase their attacker decided to make a second round of bullets at them. They had to coax their leader down from the dead body he had just seen.

Their moment of peace was interrupted when another blast hit the top of a cliff that towered over them. The men and women ducked out of the way and tucked and rolled. The officers made sure to keep their leader and first lady in the center at all times. They began to shoot their guns off randomly at anything that moved. Yeltsin called his men idiots and told them to wait. Don't waste any bullets that could be used at the right time.

They held their fire.

Another blast shot from an unknown position, this time at an officer.

The man was thrown back against the ground and screamed in agony. Eventually he stopped moving and the last thing that remained of him was a burning chest and blood pouring from his body.

Naina hollered on where the shot had come from and pointed to the area. The soldiers cocked their guns again and shot where she had guided them. Little did they know something was lurking behind the snow-covered rocks; a pack of Cano-mutates and their leader General Parvo and Groomer.

* * *

Roo and Exile heard gunshots going off and looked down the trail to see giant two-legged dogs and a man with a helmet yelling orders at them. On the other side of the landscape were Russian soldiers, the president, and first lady. Exile gulped. His master and mistress were in danger!

"Are those Canosapians too, Exile?" Roo asked.

"Not exactly little one," Exile answered her.

He immediately picked up Roo and placed her on his shoulders. He jumped onto the sled that Roo once sat on and snowboarded down the hill. He howled, grabbing the soldiers' attention as they halted their fire. They looked at Exile thinking he was another monster and readied their guns at him. Boris told them to cease fire noting that the two-legged canine had a little girl on his back.

(Easy comrades!) Exile spoke in Russian as he waved a hand in motion at them as he stopped right in front of them. He took Roo off his shoulders and placed her on the ground. (I am friend, not foe. Those things that you shoot at are the monsters, not I.) Exile looked to the Cano-Mutates who had stopped their firing as well. They were staring only at him. The two-legged monsters growled and raised their weapons and blasters straight at Exile.

Exile pushed Roo gently over to an officer and requested (Please watch my little friend here while I take care of these freaks.)

The husky got down on all fours and raced down the hill beside the road, dodging lasers being shot at him stealthily. Exile saw that the ground was rising and the husky ran up the small hill and came to the edge of a cliff. He jumped off it and landed on top of a Cano-Mutate's shoulders. He locked his legs around the back of its neck and started to wail it in the head with both fists.

The angry mongrel hollered and shot blinded into the air. Exile gave one last wail and the Cano-mutate fell to its back. Exile quickly leapt to the next monster and grabbed its long arm. He swung his legs forward, swinging himself up until he was on top of the monster's thick arm and side kicked it in the neck.

Exile noticed a third coming up as he pricked his ears in notion.

He hopped off his victim and lunged out a kick to the stomach of the third Cano-Mutate. He looked like the karate-kid from the movies to Roo. She giggled and thought, I bet I know who taught him that move!

Suddenly, a gun was fired into the air causing the Cano-Mutates and Exile to stop fighting. They all looked over and saw that it was General Parvo and the Groomer coming out from behind a tall rock. Parvo had a look on his face telling Exile that he wasn't fooling around. Groomer was busy cocking her gun as she put her finger on the trigger of her blaster. She aimed it at Exile and asked Parvo if she could.

"No," lowly whispered the man, "I want this mongrel to myself. If he was stupid enough to come to the rescue of the Soviet president and first lady alone then—" He gave a wicked grin at Exile, "He needs to be taught a very good lesson today."

Parvo ordered his canine army to step out of the way and they did just that.

The man aimed his blaster at Exile and the dog-man leapt out of the way. Roo watched from the top of the hill in terror along with the Russians.

(Boris! You must do something!) Naina screamed.

(What can I do Naina?!) her husband yelled back.

(Sir? Permission to fire?) asked one of Boris' soldiers.

(No, not yet!) ordered the president.

Exile was busy dodging all the fires that Parvo shot at him. The husky did a somersault in the air nearly dodging a shot and landed on his feet. He pulled out a small Rover missile launcher and fired at Parvo. The man dodged it and landed five feet away. He fired another laser beam and Exile dodged that one.

"It looks like we're evenly matched," Exile growled at his enemy, "—ARGHHH!"

He felt electricity surge through his spine and paralyze his whole body. He fell to his knees and tried to reach over his back to get whatever was behind him off. It was to no use. As soon as his right arm felt the weapon behind him, his joints stopped working and he fell to the snow. The wind whipped furiously, ruffling his clothes and motionless ears. Groomer was behind him with a paralyzer gun. She put the gun to her side and gave a deviant smirk as she looked down at the unconscious husky.

"Exile!" Roo called to him but the dog did not respond.

Parvo heard the wailing call and looked to see where it had come from. Roo quickly ran and hid behind a snowbank that could shield herself from the man's cold eyes. The Russians were a little confused as why she wanted to hide. But they supposed since she was little she could easily be scared. General Parvo squint his eyes to get a better look. He could have sworn he heard a child's voice beyond the brewing wind.

Meanwhile, the name that Roo had called out interested the president. "Exile" she called him.

The cat-man then began to cough uncontrollably. The dry, cold air was starting to get to his health. He decided to forget about hearing the raspy voice he had heard and faced his Cano-Mutates. He coughed one more time and pointed to the Russian president and his wife. "Take them," he ordered, "I want to have a ransom to go with my operation."

The army dogs growled and nodded.

None of the bullets that the soldiers fired at the mutants could stop them. A young Russian was able to get a bullet through one dog's head but it didn't reduce the others from coming. The Cano-Mutates jumped onto the hillside and knocked out a few soldiers in the way of them and Mr. and Ms. Yeltsin. Naina screamed in terror as she was snatched up by a seven-foot-tall Dalmatian named Spot. The other leader of the group was Fluffy, a cocker spaniel. He grabbed hold of Boris and the two raced down the mountain with the Russian authority in tow.

Roo could only watch helplessly as this went on. She wanted to help so much but she knew that she could not stand a chance against monsters and guns.

All she wanted to do was get Exile to safety.

As the Cano-Mutants boarded the hover crafter with Boris and Naina; another Cano-Mutant picked up Exile and rested him over his shoulder. Exile was carried into the craft with Parvo and Groomer still shooting at the soldiers who tried everything they could to rescue their president and first lady.

(It's no use!) cursed the youngest soldier, (We have failed our Leader and country!)

(Careful comrade! We still have one of those freaks with us!) warned an older man.

A German shepherd that was ordered by Parvo to stay behind and to distract the soldiers was trying to bite their heads off. The young one shot him in the chest but the metal he wore made the bullet bounce right off. The dog laughed and lunged at the soldier. He got right on top of him, pinning his arms down. The German shepherd opened his mouth to bite down on the man until a snowball was slammed into the side of his face.

The soldiers looked confused and looked over to see that Roo had come out of her hiding spot. She was rolling another snowball in her hands and chucked it at Cano-Mutant. The dog growled, annoyed with the child and forgot about his earlier prey. He jumped at Roo and the girl leapt out of the way as fast as she could. The dog, instead of landing on Roo, landed on top of the rock that she was standing beside. He shook his head dizzily and snarled in anger.

He got on top of the rock and looked to see where the girl had gone off too. He grew even more frustrated when he felt bullets bouncing off his chest from the Russian soldiers. The dog saw where Roo was going now. She was headed down the hill.

The German shepherd howled and jumped down from the rock and to the snowy turf. He sped after Roo who was too busy running for her life to look back. She was making her way to a fallen hollow tree. She jumped into the hollowed area and clung to the bark inside. The German shepherd tried clawing and biting his way into the tree. Roo kicked him in the face to go away but the dog kept on digging. The soldiers tried shooting at the monster but the wind kept getting into their eyes.

It was a beast with luck that could never die. A beast from hell.

Roo kept on kicking the dog in the face but screamed when he almost took her foot off with his powerful jaws. The dog snarled and dug into the snow and bark of the tree. Roo immediately took out the dog whistle she had made into a necklace. It was the dog whistle that Shepherd had given her in case Muzzle lost it. She put her lips to the whistle and blew as hard as she could. The intensive sound rung through the dog's ears and the dog howled in pain.

Roo opened one eye and stopped blowing. Wrong choice. The beast clawed his way into the tree savagely. He shoved his arm into the hollow, grabbed hold of Roo's arm and pulled her out. He held her high up in the air like a trophy and smiled a wicked grin as drool rolled down his jowls.

The dog brought Roo closer to his jaws and opened his mouth. The girl screamed in fear that she was going to be someone's lunch that day. By that one ounce of luck, Parvo called to his pet from a distance. The Russian soldiers had parted in two parties and were shooting at him and the beast.

"Move it you stupid mutt!" Parvo hissed, "Before they decapitate us!"

The German shepherd looked back at Roo and snarled with frustration; so close to getting his meal and yet so far. The beast walked back to the ship while dragging Roo in the snow by her arm. He'd have his little snack later.

As much as the Russian soldiers wanted to kill the beast they could not. Roo was already in too close of aim for them to risk shooting the German shepherd. If she were staying still, they could have aimed carefully at the beast but right now she was moving along with the creature.

Parvo was confused as to why the soldiers weren't shooting. All they were doing was watching them in disgust and shame of themselves. "Why aren't they firing?" he wondered and raised a brow when he saw what his Cano-Mutant was pulling along behind him. It was a child?! What In the world was a brat doing all the way out here for! Parvo shook his head. He didn't have time for all these questions. He was about to tell the beast to leave the girl until he saw something around her neck. Her whistle.

He picked it up and smiled as he twirled the whistle back and forth between his fingers.

"Well, what have we here? A Shepherd Cooperation Whistle, huh? Tell me young lady, where did you obtain this from?" He asked quizzically to Roo.

"Noddya," Roo hissed.

"What does that mean?"

"None of your damn business!"

"Weeell, we'll just see about that," Parvo threatened, "Luger, change of plans; take the brat inside!"

The German shepherd, Luger did as he was told and brought Roo aboard. He still dragged her by her arm and Parvo followed after. Stepan and Roo waited in the unknown as Fluffy and Spot held them back. The door to the craft closed behind Parvo and Luger. Roo did not put up a fight as she was dragged to where the hostages stood. She knew it was futile and had a disturbing image of her arm being torn off if she did struggle.

Luger held her up by her arm and smiled a distasteful look at her. He pointed at her with one of his claws on her stomach. What he did next surprised the humans.

He opened his mouth and said, "Nowhere run. Nowhere but me stomach."

It wasn't Shakespeare but it got Roo hysterical enough that she began trembling. She blinked and swerved her neck into the direction of Exile who lay asleep over one of Parvo's minions. Parvo came up to Luger and smacked him over the head. The German shepherd surprisingly grew inferior to his master. He lay on his knees and shivered in dismay of the man.

"You will not eat this one you worthless mongrel, not until I'm done with her," he spat. He looked to Spot and Fluffy and commanded them to take the Russian president and First lady to the holding cells. Luger released Roo into Parvo's grip and the man held the girl close to his face. "You will tell me what you know about Shepherd and if you don't, I'll feed you to Luger early."

Roo didn't say anything. She stayed quiet as to not make the man anymore scary than he already was. All she wanted to do was get Exile to safety.

"Speak when you're spoken to child! Didn't your parents teach you how to be polite to adults?" Groomer hovered over Roo with her hands on her hips.

That was it.

"I wouldn't be polite to you if you fed me to your mutt right now!" she took back her arm and pointed at Parvo and Groomer.

"Oh, that's a shame. Because I know if you know anything about the Road Rovers, you would love to see what I'm going to do with your friend here, Exile."

* * *

Boris, Naina, and Roo were thrown into a cell together and waited for what was going to happen. Agata cried, Boris was shouting and yelling threats at Parvo and Groomer from behind the glass wall, and Roo was trying her best to stay calm.

(Do not make them angrier than they already are my love) Naina pleaded her husband.

(No, I will not stand by and watch them obliterate my country, Naina!) he answered back.

Roo stayed in the far corner of the cell. She was curled into an upward fetal position and she looked at the adults as they spoke in Russian. She was only a ten-year-old girl and they were grownups. If they were helpless, what could she do to help? She didn't understand what they were saying but the social innuendos and situation they were under were there.

They were watching an experiment they were about to perform on Exile. The husky was carried into a securement chamber and the glass door was shut to prevent him from escaping. Exile felt himself reentering the world and blinked opened his eyes. Everything was blurry and it took his vision to re-straighten itself out.

The first thing he saw was Parvo and Groomer staring straight at him through the glass door. Groomer was at an operation table and Parvo smiled wickedly at him with his arms folded behind his back. The room was its silver-grey look with circuits sticking out of the walls. Cano-Mutants were everywhere, standing guard incase Exile acted up. The operation table Groomer sat at was covered in different lit up buttons with a keyboard in front of her.

Exile shot right up and growled at them.

"What do you plan to do with me?" he insisted.

"Oh, it's nothing that will be too damaging," Parvo turned his back on the Rover and waved his hand in the air, "Not as damaging as what these mere hostages are going to see."

"Hostages?" Exile perked an ear in question. He then looked over to see his master, mistress, and Roo in a holding cell of their own only thirty feet away. The husky felt a mixture of pain that was dwelling inside him and a boost of adrenaline shot through his eyes. He used heat vision to try and get out of the chamber but it shot right off. Parvo explained to him that it was a heat and cold resistant glass wall and that his powers would be useless against it. Exile shouted, "Parvo! Are you insane-man! Let them go!"

"I would love to but I'm holding them for ransom and you know me, I love money and a country that would surrender to me in a heartbeat to get their president and lady back."

Exile pretended not to know who Roo was for her safety and asked, "And do what with little girl? What purpose does she play?"

"I know she's American but it's not like she's anyone important. If you take let's see the life of the President of the United States then everyone would loses their minds! Take the life of a nobody child then people keep on going on with their lives."

Parvo smiled at the agitated husky. The man might have been insane but looking at his point of view, he was positively right. No country would come to the aid of surrender for a person who didn't "matter" in the judicial or government system. But he was only trying to scare the mutt. He thought if he couldn't get his answers from the girl, maybe Exile would sing like a canary and come out with some forbidden secrets of the Rovers for her well-being.

Exile wanted to surge all of his strength at that moment. But when he saw the looks on his master, mistress, and Roo who could not even look at him, he grew discouraged. He lowered his ears and did the most dishonorable thing he could do. He whimpered and his knees bent in defeat.

"Parvo please let the humans go. Your fight is with me and other Road Rovers. But don't let these innocent people be a part of this."

The menacing man frowned. This was not the answer he wanted! He'd have to settle for the girl. He turned to Groomer and told her to activate the machine the dog-man was in.

"These humans are no longer your concern! You should be more worried for yourself at this point. You see while you and the Rovers were enjoying your careless and free lives, I was busy at work on a new invention of mine. A ray that could deifier a Canosapian back to their original form! A machine I plan on making accessible and easy to carry soon in a laser rifle for when I'm in battle with the other Rovers. But this time, the deifier will make any Canosapian that is struck by it, impossible to turn back into a Road Rover ever again."

Exile felt his stomach drop. Never a Road Rover again? His friends and the Master needed him to be a Rover in order to help protect the world and its nations, especially **his** right now!

Parvo only wanted his sworn enemy to hear the next part. He walked up to the chamber and whispered into Exile's left ear;

"And if this experiment proves positive on you—"

A rush of energy came down from the ceiling of the chamber and struck Exile from head to toe. The husky was bent back and his finger curled in pain.

"I will send a satellite in the sky to warp all the dogs around the world—"

The power of the machine grew stronger as Exile felt his spine curling and back twisting. His hands were returning to paws.

"So they can't be changed into a kind like you—"

He fell to his knees which turned to haunches and his arms into front legs.

"All of the future Rovers and even your teammates will belong to me as Cano-Mutates."

When the chamber opened, there laid Exile as a normal husky. He lay motionless. The only sign of life was him hoisting up his head and he growled lowly at Parvo until his head dropped and everything went black.

**TigerTulip: **Well there you all have it. I decided to spice things up and give some conflict into this fanfic. Tell me what you think and if there's any facts on Boris Yeltsin please tell me so I can cooperate it into the story. I knew he had two daughters and brought wealth and a better justice system to parts of Russia. At least that's what I read. If there's an inaccuracy here, please tell me, and I'll fix it. Thank you everyone. :)


	7. Who Needs Rescuing?

**TigerTulip: **Thanx to all the reviewers and readers across the last chapter. I felt it was only best that I uploaded the next chapter for the long wait period from the last one. I hope you all enjoy.

**Who Needs Rescuing?**

Exile awoke befuddled and shaky. Everything seemed colder than usual. He found himself in a cold steel colored cell and looked behind him to see bars.

(My dog, my own dog a Road Rover) he heard a familiar male Russian voice.

The husky's head was in the warm lap of his mistress. She was petting him soothingly on top of the head. The dog closed his eyes peacefully and flattened his ears so she could pet him there. He dreamt he was back in his warm home in Bosnia. He was round the fireplace and at his master's feet as Yeltsin read the international newspaper. But his wasn't there. He was somewhere brick and unfriendly.

(Oh my poor little one) Naina hugged Exile around his neck and placed her right cheek onto his head. He whimpered when he felt a tang of agony in his back where Groomer had partially paralyzed him from before. (Hush my pet, it's alright. Everything will be okay) her voice comforted him again.

(Agata let me see our dog) Boris told his wife.

His wife did as she was told and pulled their pet over to her husband. The president held Exile's head up in his elderly hand. The husky looked up into his master's eyes and blinked tiredly. His usually ascetic owner had a rare smile on his face. (My own dog, a Road Rover) he repeated in amazement, (You were always trying to protect this world and us, weren't you?)

Exile whined.

He was shocked by his owner's words. He believed if his master or mistress found out he was a Road Rover, they'd disown him and send him back to Siberia. Yeltsin always threatened him of that every time he acted up as his dog. Either knocking down file cabinets when he was angry or chewing on his important business shoes. But he was actually proud of his husky.

The man's smile soon disappeared and for once in his life, he began to cry silent tears. Those silent tears turned into quiet sobbing. He put a hand to his gaping mouth and said, (I'm so sorry, Exile. I'm so sorry my comrade that this happened to you. Exile—you can no longer be Road Rover because of what that man did to you.)

Exile's eyelids drooped down midway in dismay. Ever since he was a pup, all he wanted to do was too be a good dog. He thought that maybe if he stayed a Road Rover, he could manage to make the world a better one. He felt it was his responsibility as a dog to be as loyal as possible. Maybe if he could be a Cano-Sapien he could protect everyone. He could protect his master and mistress. He felt the same for Roo. It was a dog's initial instinct to be at a human's side at all times. But because of today, he felt he couldn't even do that.

Everything was done for nothing; in failure.

All the husky could do now was to stay as he was in his normal form. He was no longer a Rover but an ordinary dog. What could he do without his ice/heat vision and super strength? He was trapped in the same kennel with his master and mistress.

Roo was nowhere to be seen.

Exile let out a hushed bark in question of where Roo was.

His owners did not know what he was barking about. They looked at each other, baffled, and back at their pet. Exile needed to know where his little one was. He tried getting up but lost balance on his feet and fell back down. (Exile, no boy, stay down) Yeltsin ordered him.

Exile whined again and closed his eyes. Something was beginning to turn wrong. He seemed to be forgetting about her all of a sudden. Her appearance, her name; who she even was to him. All the dog cared for was sleeping right now.

* * *

"Now tell me, what do you know about the Road Rovers?"

Parvo had landed the hover crafter on the ground a hundred miles in the wild tundra part of Siberia. He wanted to hold Roo in a private conversation. Parvo stared up at the girl that was being hung upside down by his Cano-Mutate, Luger. The beast grinned up at Roo who gulped wearily. Parvo demanded the question again and this time, Roo's spunk got the best of her. She pulled down the skin under her left eyeball and stuck out her tongue at the man.

"Mmmmmm…" she sounded out.

She got cuffed over the head by Groomer.

"You'd be wise not to upset the General," the lady said.

"Wait til' Blitz gets ahold of you. He'll bite your tush right off!" Roo spat, rubbing her sore face.

Groomer pulled back her head in a laugh, "That cowardly mutt? He proved his courage a while back when I was pharaoh over my Cat-Mutates!"

She then saw the displeasing look of her master and she silenced herself. That was the only time she rebelled against him and would be her last if he had to do with it. "Sorry General," she apologized and looked back to Roo who looked like she was in her own little world, "Nooow, are you going to sing or are you going to keep this little act up?"

Roo knew she was only digging deeper by acting like a little snot but she did not care. No one hurt Exile and was going to get away with it.

"So what exactly did you do to Exile?" she asked.

"None of your concern," Parvo stated. He folded his arms across his chest, "Now, what do you know of the Road Rovers? Where's their base? I'd answer if I were you; Luger looks like he's getting hungry." He motioned to his pet and the beast lifted Roo to his open drooling mouth. Parvo twirled Roo's whistle in his fingers and threw it up and down in his now open palm. On the third time throwing it in the air, he caught it and frowned at the girl.

Roo gulped again and stared wide eyed at Luger's fangs. It was a rather deep way down and to get her down there would be painful since he had to chew her up first. She imagined her life in a movie or story write now. What would the main character do not to give away the secrets of her friends? She thought for a moment but was cut off when Parvo ordered her to speak. Roo thought of when the police were questioning her on ratting out one of the girls in the group home back in Maine on a prank that was pulled on the house. The house was covered in toilet paper and garbage cans were knocked over. This girl was only a couple of Roo's friends back at the group home and she didn't want to rat on her.

She pretended to cry and told the officers that it was a couple of teenagers. They would drive by their property and throw beer bottles onto their driveway as they sped by in their cars. Surprisingly the police bought it and went by the teenager's house. No one knew that it was Roo and her friend Charlene.

Roo felt like laughing but now was not the appropriate time. Roo predicted she was good at three things when it came to manipulation. One; putting on an act, two; giving her baby doll eyes, three; lying.

"Oh poo," she said as she stared straight at Parvo and Groomer. She pretended not to notice Luger's fangs and drool. "You've got me surrounded. Okay, I'll tell you the secrets of the Rovers if it means I won't get eaten. First, Shag loves to use toilet water for his secret recipes, Blitz is really a coward underneath his sharp fangs, Colleen can't remember his name to save her life, Hunter loves to drool all over the tennis balls he chases, Exile cracks the lamest jokes, and—"

"I mean **important** secrets!" Parvo shook his fist in the air.

"Oh, right. Well, they use the Sonic Rover for top speed chases and they use the Cloud Rover to get around in the skies. We took the Cloud Rover here. Are you pretty sure you want to know where that thing is? I'm telling you a ship being driven by dogs can get pretty messy."

"Tell me where the Sky Rover is!"

"—It's buried in the snow about five miles north from here."

Damn, she broke a little.

"Good—now where is Mission Control?"

"In the Appalachian Mountains. Don't ask me about latitude or where exactly, I'm only ten-years-old."

"That's good, good. You may just be as loyal and honest as those stupid dogs who hang around with. But to make sure you're telling the truth, Luger you may have your meal."

The beast growled happily and opened his mouth wide.

"Not here you idiot!-" Parvo turned on the monitor at his computer desk. The Russian president, First lady, and their dog came into view. "-I want her former companion to see this."

* * *

Boris, Naina, and Exile waited miserably in their cell for help or hope. Exile was in and out of sleeping. Boris rubbed his neck to calm his dog down. They heard the entrance to the prison open and in came Parvo, Groomer, and Luger who was holding Roo by the arm. The girl looked the other humans in the eyes and her mouth gaped in surprise when she was lifted off the ground by her arm.

Parvo stated, "Well, my dear lady, president, and should I say former Rover? The time has come for you to witness the depths of my internee." He snapped his finger and Luger pulled Roo closer and opened his jowls.

Exile jumped up barking loudly and Yeltsin calmed him.

"Please, Parvo. Release the girl." Yeltsin spoke in English, "Your battle is with me and my country but let the child go. You can have me in her place."

The Russian president rarely showed sympathy this way. He had never had children before. He had no heir to take his place but in his heart he could not stand by and watch a little girl dye right in front of him. Not in this brutal way.

"Please!" Agata begged, "You can have my life too. Just do as we ask."

"I'm sorry," Parvo shook his head and gave a twisted smile, "But you are far more important to me than this brat could ever be. Your country will pay dearly for your safe return and I—"

"RAGHHH! RAGHHHR!"

Exile jumped up against the bars. The fur on his back and shoulder blades were raised and his teeth shined like pearls. Parvo laughed at the dog's futility. He grabbed a disciplinary club hanging next to the cell. He bashed the husky on the head.

"Nyet!" hollered Yeltsin.

Exile kept on growling and got back up. He was whacked in the side of the face and went back down. He rose again and got knocked down again. Yeltsin reached for the club and grabbed hold of it. He pulled the club toward him and yelled in Russian at Parvo. Parvo pulled back. Suddenly, a loud explosion came from outside the prison.

"Groomer! Go see what that was!"

"Certainly General!"

As Groomer got to the exit, the door blasted open, throwing the woman backwards. Roo gasped. She was holding the Shepherd logoed whistle in her hand at the time. Groomer had accidentally let go off it for it to only get blasted away in the explosion.

"Sorry to be tardy for the party!" came, a familiar voice.

It was Hunter and the other Road Rovers.

"But we've got butt to kick! Go Rovers!"

The dogs howled in response and leapt into action.

"**Hiya!" **Colleen karate kicked Luger in the side and the beast fell backwards. The collie caught Roo in her arms and smiled at her, "'Ello dearie. Where's Exile?"

Roo frowned. Before she could say anything, Hunter interrupted.

"Oh no," he whispered.

Hunter had knocked Parvo out of the way when they saw Exile as a normal dog. When Hunter asked how they he got that way, Roo explained to him about Parvo dei-dogmafeing Exile. Hunter bared his fangs and turned toward the man. He curled his fingers into a fist and told Colleen and Blitz to get the humans and Exile out of here. Colleen obeyed as she handed Roo to Blitz and she released the hostages through a button next to the cell.

She picked up Exile and told the president and first lady to follow them. Shag that was more than just furious was ordered to help Hunter with his **own **interrogation. The golden retriever picked up Parvo by the shirt on his chest and shoved the man back against the wall.

"You shouldn't have messed with my teammate like that. Turn. Him. Back. Now," he ordered.

Parvo hissed and said, "Not on your life mutt! His Cano-Sapien form is gone! Copout! And the same will happen to you and every other damn Road Rover on this planet! World domination will be mine!"

Hunter grabbed his moustache and pulled back his fist to punch him in the face. A laser was then fired into his back and the retriever howled in agony. He fell to his knees in pain and began to tremble. He looked to his right and saw Shag. He was not as big as before. He seemed smaller and less powerful. The sheepdog was on the ground flat out on his stomach and trembling unconditionally. Groomer, who had recovered, held what look like a laser launcher over her shoulder. She gave Hunter a villainous glare. Hunter turned back to face Parvo and demanded to know what was going on.

"Oh, just my prototype for the portable dei-dogmafier," the sweating man coughed.

* * *

Colleen and Blitz were running for their lives as they raced down the steel hallway. Colleen stopped and looked back.

"Colleen, vhat are you doing?!" Blitz stopped, "Vee have to keep going!"

"Not without 'unter and Shag, I won't. You take Exile and the others and get them out of here," she ordered the Doberman.

"Ms.—Dog-woman," Yeltsin panted. His age made it difficult for him to run like this, "You cannot take on that mad man. He tried feeding his monster that little girl."

Colleen smiled toward the man and said, "You've obviously never met a Road Rover directly before." She placed an unconscious Exile into his arms and ran back to the prison holding cell. Before she could turn around the corner, Groomer came out and shot her with the dei-dogmafier. The collie screamed in terror as she felt the laser surgically forming her back into her dog form. Blitz cried out her name and dropped Roo. The girl landed on her rear and watched in terror as the Doberman went to defend his love.

Roo tried to run after him to warn Blitz of the laser beam but was stopped by Naina.

"I vill make you pay for that you vrench!" he opened his jaws and unsheathed his claws.

Groomer pulled the trigger on the launcher and Blitz fell to his back. The Doberman howled wildly and became stunned. He rolled back and forth on the ground as the blast took hold of him. In less than five minutes, the Road Rovers were permantely shut down.

"Blitz!" Roo screamed. She broke through Agata's grasp and raced to the motionless bodies of the dogs. She got down and tried shaking them awake. They would not budge. The girl then did something that was unexpected. Instead of cowering in fear, she threw back her head, and screamed loudly. She launched up.

Her hidden instincts to destroy everything she touched at that moment came out and onto Groomer's body.

The girl bit into Groomer's leg, bringing the woman down. She ripped a piece of the adult's pant leg off and drew blood. Groomer began to pound Roo on the head. Her fights with Michelle always striking her in the head proved ineffective. Roo had never been angrier than she had felt before. All the abuse she suffered from the group home and the clients and staff around her could not compare to how she felt right now. These dogs took her in! They fed, clothed, sheltered, and loved her when she needed it.

If it meant throwing her life away to protect them as long as she could, she'd do it.

Eventually, Groomer kicked her off and the girl slammed against the hallway wall. She became dizzy and disoriented. Her upper torso and arms motioned back and forth. She perked her head and saw that Groomer was holding another launcher this time, only it was lethal.

"Little savage," she whispered.

"Hold it right there under the Russian Law!"

Groomer and Parvo looked over to see Russian soldiers holding up their rifles and guns at them. The president and first lady were set in the center of the standing wall of soldiers. Yeltsin held Exile and his wife close to his chest. Past all the Russians you could see hesitation in their eyes through the whole situation.

"One shot to the child's head and we fire," said the leading captain of Russian Defenses.

"Soviets!" Parvo rasped, "How did you find our ship?!"

"Road Rovers give us a head lead," the officer spoke coolly. He and his men did not take their aim off of the two villains. "Now—hand over girl or we shoot. Your choice."

Parvo called for his Cano-Mutates to come and attack but they did not come. The Captain and a few of his lieutenants gave a nervous chuckle. "We and Rovers take good care of your, how you say, Cano-Mutants," answered the Captain. They were not laughing at a joke but were more worried of what could happen at any moment.

Parvo tried calling again but when he heard the crackling sound of rifles getting ready to fire, he told Groomer to set Roo free. The officers preceded putting handcuffs on the two and a lower ranked soldier went up to Roo and slipped his hands under her arms. He picked her up and rested her on his shoulder. He smiled at her warmly and Roo recognized him. It was the young soldier from the mountains from when they had been abducted.

(Are you okay little one?) he whispered in Russian.

He could not speak English but Roo seemed to know what he was saying. She nodded and with all her remaining strength, pointed to where Colleen and Blitz lay passed out.

"Dogs, my dogs," she pleaded the soldiers to help.

The Captain, who did speak English, ordered his troops to get the collie and Doberman.

(There are other dogs in the cell room) Yeltsin told them.

By the end of the day, the Russian Defense officers and soldiers managed to rescue their president, first lady, Roo, and the pets.

**TigerTulip: **It kinda sux that Roo loses her whistle to the explosion. Until the next chapter!


	8. Are You Okay?

**TigerTulip: **Here's the next chapter folks. Thank you to all my reviewers and friends that I've made on this site. It really helps me out in hard times. Enjoy!

**Are You Okay?**

Roo stayed awake the enter time she was transported to the president's nearest safe house and hospital. They made sure there was veterinary care for the dogs as well. Yeltsin ordered the finest for his and the other dogs who saved their lives. The Russian soldiers tried to find the transportation that provided the Road Runners to the country. But little did they know Dr. Shepherd had recovered them first. It took the man himself to take one of his jets out there and to place a teleporting-device onto the ships. With one flick of a switch, they were back into Road Rovers headquarters.

How you ask a man could build a teleporting device like that? Dr. Shepherd was that smart and anticipated anything.

Hunter, Colleen, Blitz, Exile, and Shag lay on tables where they were prodded and poked with medical equipment.

Dr. Golovin did his examination on the president and first lady. He took their blood pressure and tapped them on the knee with a rubber mallet to see if their knees would jerk. They did and that meant their reflexes were working. Doctors wanted to make sure the hostages weren't set into shell shock and began asking them obvious questions. Are you okay? Do you know what just happened? Do you know where you are? They asked these questions to make sure the people were mentally stable and all right.

"Is this your blood?" Dr. Golovin asked Roo.

Of course Roo knew it wasn't hers all over her mouth. It was Groomer's from when she bit her. Dr. Golovin was afraid the girl was too mentally and physically damaged to answer. Roo opened her mouth and said "no". She began to mumble whines and curled up into a small ball. She began to cry silently. The doctor looked to the ground and back up at Roo. He took his hand and gently pets her on head.

Dr. Golovin felt around her head next and asked if it hurt. If she should say no then her brain connections were not in tact with feeling pain. If she should say yes then they would be. Fortunately, Roo answered positively. The doctor picked her up and placed her on the ground. He wanted to know if she could walk straight. She immediately tried to run to the dogs' side but was caught by a soldier. He hoisted her up and laughed.

(You don't like doctors. No, you love doggies) he said in Russian.

The doctor turned his attention to Boris and Naina. The two waited patiently for the doctor's summary on their health and Roo's.

(Well it seems that you two will be fine but as for the girl—she received more trauma to the head than anything. She will need to remain at the local Children's Hospital here in Bosnia while I do further research on her health. You two can go home tonight if you'd like to sir and first lady Naina.) Dr. Golovin stated his report.

Yeltsin blinked in doubt and looked over to Roo who was keeping her eyes on Exile. He wondered what made this connection between the girl and his dog so strong.

He leaned forward and whispered something into the doctor's right ear.

(Take her with you back to your home, sir?!)

(Yes, I am very interested in that young lady.)

(Sir, she is American. We checked and beyond our law and peace treaty with the U.S. we cannot take a foreign child and keep them for our own. I-It would be international kidnapping! And she needs to be in a hospitalized setting.)

The Russian president held his chin to his hand and looked intensively at the dogs now.

(And why are these dogs so special to her?) his questions were getting the best of him.

Stepan was beginning to return to his old-dictatorship-self.

(Bill Clinton will not be pleased sir) warned the doctor.

(I do not care, I want that girl and I want answers from her.)

As usual, the president got what he wanted and kept the all the dogs except Exile in the veterinarian hospital for animals. He made sure the doctor stayed with them until Roo healed from her wounds. Roo was bored and tired of being in Bosnia Russia. She was threatened by Yeltsin that if she didn't answer his questions, he'd punish her severely. He never did. Instead, he studied her. He watched as Roo tried to get Exile to interact with her; to play, to run around, anything to get the husky off of his feet. Eventually, Exile was able to walk but from a side effect of the dei-dogmafier, his personality and memory were warped.

It was as if Exile had no memory of who Roo was or being a Road Rover at all. The only thing he remembered was his master, mistress, and the warm fire he laid around at, at night.

He didn't go near Roo either. Whenever she made an attempt or motioned toward him he'd let out a low growl and go back to nestling next to his mistress. Roo always carried a sad face from that day on. Roo had no idea what "international kidnapping" was either. As a ten-year-old the only thing she knew was being in a foreign country with strange people talking differently. All she wanted was Exile, Hunter, Colleen, Blitz, and Shag back.

She began to wonder how the other former Rovers were doing in the hospital. The Soviet President was paying good money to keep them in the nice parts of Bosnia but how much longer would he do so? There were more strays on the street and in pounds being euthanized every day. Roo then decided to tell the hardest thing she had to say to the president.

"The Road Rovers were my adoptive family," she answered him; "They took me in when no one else wanted me. I can tell you all the names of their owners and where they live."

* * *

Yeltsin contacted the President of the United States, Queen of England, Chancellor of Germany, and the President of the Swiss Confederation the next day. They were all shocked that their beloved presidential pets were actually the Road Rovers right underneath their noses.

They came to Russia to accept their dogs back. The U.S. president on the other hand, cornered the Soviet President on his own decision to take Roo "hostage."

"In all my years working with you, this is how you show your alliance-agreement with my country and I? Kidnapping a little girl when you knew she was American!" Clinton accused as he pointed a finger at Yeltsin.

"How can you blame me?!" the man came to his defense. He slammed his fists onto the table, "That little girl knew about the Road Rovers the entire time and took two weeks to come clean about it! I know she was involved with my dog-comrade, Exile somehow. The only thing is—I accept my dog for who he is and what secret he was keeping from me. The point is—what will you four do?"

The country leaders looked at each other and gave indifferent looks.

"My Shag will of course come back to Switzerland with me. He will stay with me and be under me and my staff's care while we get through this," the president of the Swiss Confederation, Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, stated calmly.

"Well my Colleen's certainly not going to mix with **your **dogs anymore. She will remain at 'ome, in England with me," the Prime Minister, Queen Elizabeth the second, yelled.

"Ja! My Blitz will not be interacting vhith your hunds eva again. He will be under strict surveillances until we can find out vhat else dis girl is hiding from us," the chancellor, Roman Herzog, agreed and disagreed with the group.

"Hunter will come back with me to the White House—" Clinton looked at the German Chancellor not forgetting something, "—And as for the "girl" she has a name. Kaitlyn Dubois. As for young Ms. Dubois, she will not be any more intimidated, confronted, or integrated than she already has. As of right now, she's under U.S. Military Protection. She will be coming back to her own country and be placed under special care."

"That is preposterous!" Herzog shot up from his seat; "She knows things that could help us find out vhoo the Road Rovers were and vhoo had done this to our dogs!"

The American and European leaders argued, except for the Swiss leader who opted for peace rather than war. They were going so at it, that they didn't realize a security guard that had entered the meeting room.

"Yes? What is it?" Queen Elizabeth asked rather annoyed by the disturbance.

"I'm sorry Miss—" the guard hesitated, "But the girl, Kaitlyn Dubois. She cannot be found in the lobby anywhere."

* * *

Roo (Kaitlyn Dubois) was running as fast as her legs could carry her. She was speeding past people and vendors in the busy city street of Bosnia. She was racing back to a place where she vaguely remembered where the dogs were being held. The private kennel made on the Soviet President's governmental to store them. She snuck out of the lobby when she told one of the U.S. security guards that she had to use the bathroom. Once alone in the bathroom, she climbed into the air vent above while standing on the sink and made her way to an opening that led outside.

She risked life and limb getting past a spinning fan to exit the building through that opening. She slid down a pipe connected to the fan. It was only good luck that everything was put together so coincidentally.

Now she was running for her livelihood to get to Exile and the others.

She bumped into a meat marketer's vendor by accident in the park and knocked over a table full of deli sandwiches. The man yelled in Russian for her to come back but Roo kept on going. She jumped down from a stone wall that led to an under- passaged road that led to the Leading Soviet House. A bunch of stray dogs stared at her as she ran. She looked at them and saw what could have been her Rovers fate. Just strays from the street.

Finally, she got to her destination and stopped.

How was she going to get in without being seen?!

She heard barking and looked over to see her five dogs being walked on leads by The International Officers. They were leading them into a van to be safely delivered back to their owners at the Meeting House.

She raced over to them and waited for their reactions toward her. The dogs barely recognized her until she called out Exile's name. She told him that it was her. Roo. The husky did as he had done after he was dei-dogmified; growled at the stranger. Blitz pricked his ears in curiosity and joined Exile. The other dogs followed pursuit.

Roo stood with her eyes watering. They really didn't remember who she was. She stood there with her shoulders slumped and a speechless look on her face. She remembered Exile reading _Dr. Suess_ books to her at night, even though she did not care for them like he did, she still enjoyed being read too. She remembered Hunter playing with her when she didn't have anyone her own age to be with. She remembered fixing her hair with Colleen. She remembered Blitz chasing after her when he was mad with her. She enjoyed every minute of it. She remembered drinking coffee when Shag snuck her out of the base to get it with her. And now—

And now they weren't the same. They were what they were meant to be; animals.

But it didn't matter.

Roo walked closer and reached out. The security guards warned her to stay back for her safety. She couldn't hear them.

"Exile, I know you can't understand me but—you must remember—you have to remember—all the things we did together." She sniffed and continued, "I don't have the whistle to remind you but—you have to remember—"

Exile and the dogs growled at every step closer she took. The guards were beginning to lose control of the dogs.

"Exile—I"

When she was only five feet away, Exile got loose of his leash and jumped into the air, baring his fangs. Everything seemed in slow motion. Roo's terrified face reflecting directly into the savage look of the dog. She inched back hesitantly, shut her eyes, and covered her head for protection. The yelling of the guards blurred out of hearing. Exile's jowls were pulled back and his fangs were ready to wear blood.

The silence was cut off when Exile's yelp of surprise entered the air.

Roo unshielded her eyes and saw that a guard had caught Exile's end of the leash before he had attacked her. The girl stared unbelievably at the growling dog. It wasn't Exile. It wasn't Exile anymore.

The heart broken girl's knees hit the cement floor as she watched the dog continuously bark at her.

"Kaitlyn! Kaitlyn!" called the U.S. president from behind her. The world leaders had found Roo when they got word from the meat marketer in the park. They drove their in their private limousine and police escort. They got out just in time to see the whole scene. "Are you alright? For Sam hill sake, girl, what was going through your mind?!" he shook the girl.

Roo only sat and watched as the dogs greeted their owners happily. She got away from the president's grasp and began to cry as she hit the ground with her fists. She began to mumble swears and wishing everything wasn't the way it was.

Clinton blinked and looked into Yeltsin's eyes;

"Now you know what kind of connection they had."

* * *

Roo was taken back to America and was placed in a foster home in Coupeville, Washington that was protected by the U.S. They did not tell the foster home why she and they were under the U.S. protection. But the foster parents were close friends with the president so they knew he had his reasons. She was recently checked up on by the Clinton time to time. He tried asking her questions on whether she was ready to tell anymore secrets she knew of the Road Rovers. Who was the man who created the Transdogmafier? Was the base of the Road Rovers close?

Clinton knew he was being a hypocrite of when he said no more interviewing of Roo but for his country, he needed to know. There could be more people out there turning animals into Homo-Sapien-like creatures and not knowing for good or bade use. Roo forced herself not to speak of Dr. Shepherd to him. She had not heard of the professor in sometime. She wondered how Muzzle was doing. She wanted to be nowhere but in the base at that moment.

Every time Clinton came to see her, she would not budge on her silent protest. He would sigh, shake his head, and have to get back to the white house for meetings.

The world leaders decided to keep the identity of their dogs as Road Rovers a secret from the press. Stepan made sure that if any of his private soldiers or doctors leaked out the news of Rovers to the press, it would mean life in prison. But it didn't stop the leaders from arguing with each other on what to do about the Road Rovers in general. They wanted to meet the man responsible for turning their pets into Cano-Sapiens.

It seemed ridiculous. Starting a world war on the outcome of knowing the Road Rovers were really the presidential pets of world leaders. Roo had little understanding of all these political problems and disagreements. But she did know that this wasn't going to end well if the world leaders were going to keep on bickering like a bunch of kids.

She rarely talked to her foster mother and father. She predicted they didn't really care. The U.S. government was giving them a monthly check and security reasons for Roo's well-being. She saw them spending it on leisurely things for themselves. Sure, they did spoil Roo with the money by getting her a huge room with all the computer games, toys, and queen-sized bed but it still didn't matter.

She missed Exile.

There were times when Roo tried to forget about Exile like a shadow in her past. She asked her foster parents if she could get a dog from the shelter. They only responded with words like "Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie. But we have no room for dogs right now" or "Maybe in the near future."

They were cat-fanatics. They had three cats of their own. Roo smiled and tried to play with them but it was not the same as dogs. Cats did not play fetch or like to dig in the dirt. They preferred climbing than running in circles and they rarely interacted with Roo.

Roo's misery was then turning into anger. It was hard to fight her old habits. She was born with impulsivity and a mild case of Asperger's syndrome and that's partially why she was sent into TLC for. DCF was in charge of her placement. Impulsivity caused quick tempers with people and at a younger age, and then tended to act out more. Tantrums became not as often in adulthood. With Asperger's, it was a social disorder and on the Autism spectrum. It wasn't autism but signs and the social areas of Asperger's where similar to autistic behaviors. For one, they have a hard time reading facial expressions. Unlike Roo who had it mildly, she could read most expressions, but people who had it bad had a harder time understanding expressions.

Sometimes the people tend to perseverate more on things and have addicted hobbies whether it was to TV shows, favorite music artists, or having a collection of some sort. Some kids in school are labeled either dorks or nerds because of this and are often targeted for bullying. Charlene, Roo's friend from TLC, had the same syndrome. Like Roo, she received little consoling and understanding and did things that were considered "unusual" to "normal-mind" set people. But with the right help and consoling, people tend to "grow out" of the social disorder. But they still have a hard time reading people.

It was like a clock. When you spend time with people, the clock seems to go forward and the person becomes more comfortable. With someone with Asperger's, the clocks seems to go backwards, making them more uncomfortable as they spend more time with the person or social setting.

But Roo wasn't an adult. She was diagnosed only with her disorders when she was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts when she was nine. Not understanding people and seeing the world in black and white will often lead to depression, anxiety, or both. Roo felt disgusted with the world. Hurting the Road Rovers was wrong and why would anyone do that? It was **wrong**. Why would the world leaders fight over knowing their dogs were actually heroes in disguise and fighting about it amongst each other? It didn't make any sense.

Roo began to act out and began to curse out loud and yelled at her foster parents. She refused to do chores and started doing things from knocking over benches in the park and hitting her fist at brick walls. She focused on only one thing; the love and care Exile and the other Rovers gave to her.

Soon, her foster parents didn't want to bring her out in public and brought her to a child physiatrist. He explained to them or her history diagnoses and that if she was going to get over everything she had been through, she needed intensive therapy and medication. Roo pretended to take her medication but hid it under her tongue. Every night she would go into her bathroom, spit out the meds, and flushed them down the toilet. She learned every trick in the book at TLC through the clients.

Her tantrums calmed after she received consoling.

She told the therapist of the things she would do with the Road Rovers. Everything from Exile reading to her, hunter playing with her, and Shag teaching her how to cook—besides the toilet water he used. She left that part out.

She also talked of her past and how the staff manipulated her to get into trouble. The police, the fist fights; everything.

"She is a very broken child," the psychiatrist, Dr. Harris, explained to her foster parents, "Depressed, anxious, impulsive, and to top it all off with a social disorder, she's probably broken beyond repair. She's better off being on medication for the rest of her life."

Roo had heard this through the cracked door as she waited in the lobby of the building and clutched her fists. They could tie her down and shove meds down her throat until she overdosed. No amount of medical treatment was going to help her.

Little did Roo know, she was still being watched over by a friend.

She was asleep in her bed when she was awoken by a voice.

"Roo, Roo, wake up. It's me Dr. Shepherd."

The girl sprung up in her bed. She looked around to see where the man was and threw off her sheets. She landed on both feet on the carpeted floor and continued to look around flabbergasted.

"Roo, I'm communicating with you telepathically through your brain waves. You cannot see me. This is how I manage to interact with all the Road Rovers across the world."

"**All** the Road Rovers?" Roo asked in astonishment, "Dr. Shepherd—I'm so sorry. So sorry. It was all my fault that Hunter and the others can't be Road Rovers anymore. If I had only just heard what Parvo was going to do to Exile I would have—"

"Child that was not your fault! It was the fault of Parvo and Groomer. You weren't the one who gave Exile and your location to Parvo. He tracked you down and you were only caught in the aftermath. I want you to stop wallowing in self-pity and try to help me to get the Rovers back together."

The ten-year-old was shocked at how forceful his words were. He had never raised his voice to her like that. She felt something awakening inside her. Mixed emotions of rebellion and wanting to listen to what the professor was trying to tell her. "O-Okay," she stared down at the flower-carpet below her, "But how? I'm just a little girl."

"Yes you are young but youth is like a fire that never burns out, Roo. And you could be that spark for the return of the Road Rovers. I'll explain everything in time soon. When you see me, fake that I'm a stranger and that we're meeting for the first time. I'll see you soon."

"Wait! Dr. Shepherd, you don't know that they've permantely been turned into dogs and can't—"

He was already gone and Roo was left to be yelled at by her stepmother to stop talking to herself and to go to bed.

**TigerTulip: **Poor Roo can never get a break. I tried not to make Roo annoying in my fanfiction with her tantrums as best as I could.


	9. Youth Is A Fire That Never Burns Out

**TigerTulip: Thank you to all the readers and reviewers so far. The title is a spoof on the dialogue that Shepherd told Roo. With young age, it is like a fire burning and will not die out. A lot of young people have helped around the world in their own ways to make a better step for either economics, politics, or helping Shepherd chase down five dogs. lol. :D**

**Youth Is A Fire That Never Burns Out **

After school, Roo was taken to see the therapist again. She shuffled uncomfortably in the wooden chair and kicked her feet back and forth. Dr. Harris was watching her from behind his alpine desk and padded chair. He tried getting her to talk about what was on her mind but the girl rolled her eyes and continued to kick her feet.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

In came a man with long silvery-white hair tied back professionally and warm clear blue eyes. Roo smiled at him but suddenly remembered her promise and looked at him as if he were a stranger. She had no idea he was coming to see her so soon.

"May I help you?" asked Dr. Harris.

"Yes," smiled the "stranger", "I'm Dr. William Shepherd from Shepherd Industries and I would like to speak with this young lady."

He motioned to Roo with his hand and the psychiatrist looked at him skeptically. He asked him of any proof he was who he said he was. Dr. Shepherd showed him a business card with his name on it. Dr. Harris took his glasses and rubbed them down with eyeglass cleaner and a handkerchief. He apologized to Dr. Shepherd and said that he shouldn't be here and that Roo was in the middle of therapy right now. Dr. Shepherd said it would only be a minute and he needed privacy with the girl.

"I'm sorry Dr. Shepherd, but I feel I must be here if you plan on meeting with my client—how did you get past the front desk even?" he asked.

Dr. Shepherd chuckled. He knew ways but didn't tell. His telepathic mind control machine he invented and tested it on the secretary to let him pass was his secret alone.

"I'm familiar with the secretary," Shepherd lied.

Dr. Harris looked at the strange man as if he had a relationship with the Shelly Patterson, the secretary outside the office. He got up and excused himself. He was going to have a talk with Mrs. Patterson. He told Roo not to go anywhere and for Shepherd to wait outside of the office. When the therapist was out of sight, Shepherd quietly reentered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Okay, Roo," he said, "Here's the plan."

* * *

After their quick, two minute meeting, Shepherd exited the office and walked down the hall. On his way out, he passed a Shelly Patterson who held a dumbfounded look on her face as a furious Dr. Harris was yelling at her.

When Roo got home she was excited.

She rushed up the stairs and began to pack. Her foster parents, Ted and Carol, were taking her to the white House for her annual monthly checkup with the president. Dr. Shepherd had explained to her that she was going to have to try to gain access to Hunter and bring him to the Road Rovers base. She would bring him to the transportation underground system to Socorro, New Mexico. He told her it was under a tree stump near Hunter's dog house.

When she got to her destination she acted more cheerful and happy than usual. The president liked this new attitude of hers and asked her if she would like to discuss things about Hunter's former life in the tea room. The girl shook her head and instead asked him if she could see Hunter instead.

The man was fairly hesitant of this. The retriever seemed only friendly to him and Hilary for some time after the dei-dogmifieing. Roo then gave him her baby doll eyes and begged. Crap Clinton thought. If this were Clinton's only child it would never work but on Roo's face it did. He was convinced to take her to Hunter.

It was summer outside. The grass was bright green and kept hydrated at most hours of the day. The sun beamed high over the sky. Hunter was resting inside his dog house and lapping up water from his red bowl. He shook his head and licked his right forepaw. When his owner approached the gate, he opened it, and entered. Hunter stretched his legs and easily greeted the man without any signs of aggression.

"It's okay Hunter, it's okay," he said to the dog, "I have a visitor for you boy."

The dog looked to see Roo standing behind the open gate. The dog lowered his head and growled at the girl; thus a sad aftereffect of the dei-dogmifier. Bill allowed the girl to enter the gate cautiously and told Hunter to behave. The dog did as he was told and sat down. Roo reached to pet him but the dog growled. Bill told him to behave again and the dog stopped growling. Roo reached again and this time, she was able to get her finger behind his cropped ears.

She sighed with relief. Maybe there was a memory yet still in Hunter's head.

The next thing she asked threw the president off guard;

"Can I be alone with him for a while?"

At first the president was quizzical and then thought it was only appropriate for all the girl had been through with the retriever. He left the kennel and told the security guards to follow him. He told Roo he'd give them three minutes. When the adults were gone, Roo quickly reached into her pink backpack and pulled out a leash. She clipped the leash to Hunter's collar and tried to lead the dog toward the stump next to his house. The dog growled in annoyance and pulled back.

"Come on, Hunter. Mhm! Move it!" she whispered.

The dog's nails began to dig up soil as he pulled back on the leash. Roo gave one last heave and fell backwards by accident. The stump opened automatically and the girl and dog fell through the passageway. They slid on what appeared to be a spiraling slide. It led them to an underground passageway and Roo saw the vehicle that used to bring Hunter to the base. It looked like a one-person roller coaster ride. It was silver with purple paint at the end. It had the shape of a metallic dog as usual. Roo turned back to Hunter who was still in shock.

She used all her upper body strength to hoist up the disoriented dog into her arms and placed him into the "roller coaster." She scooted in behind him and looked to see if there was an on switch. Suddenly, the vehicle kicked in and the girl and dog zoomed off at fifty miles an hour down the tunnel. They both screamed and held onto each other in terror. Hunter seemed to really forget everything.

When the ride came to a complete halt, Roo and Hunter swerved back and forth dizzily.

"You're here already?"

Roo focused her eyes and looked over to see Dr. Shepherd waiting patiently at the entrance of the Transdogmafier room. He had a smile on his face with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Roo hopped out of the dog cruiser, nearly losing balance in her legs, "I've got Hunter now—"

"Now I need you to get the others."

"Why can't you help?!"

"Because I need to stay here and get the Transdogmafiers ready. Besides, if I go and retrieve the others, it may reveal to the world leaders that I was the one who turned their pets into Cano-sapiens."

"Well, alright—wait—what if I get caught?"

"Then I'll risk to come get you."

"How?"

The professor sighed and said, "Just go Roo."

The girl's next place to go was England. She hopped into Colleen's usual dog cruiser and was transported successfully to London. Getting Colleen to come was a little easier than Hunter. All she had to do to get Colleen to come was by approaching her cautiously with her hand extended out. The collie sniffed her scent and somewhere in her mind, laid the familiar scent of Roo. The dog began to lick her hand and then on the face.

Roo giggled and said she was glad to see her too.

She got Colleen to the Road Rovers base with ease at that point.

The next dog, Blitz, was going to be a different story.

Dr. Shepherd warned her that Blitz was under intensive watch and that she had to be careful on approaching him as to not be caught by security guards. Shepherd would send a distraction in the German Chancellor's base to give Roo a fighting chance. He hacked into the main house's security system and set it off. The guards rushed to see if the Chancellor was alright. When Roo came through the passageway, she poked her eyes through the opened rock that Blitz used to get to the Rover HQ.

"This is so stupid," she mumbled, "Walking around like a spy for a crazy man to get the "weird-boy." She loved that nickname that Exile gave him—it hurt to remind her self of his name.

When the coast seemed clear, Roo climbed out of the hole and quietly slunk over to Blitz's dog house. She peered inside carefully as to not get bitten because on account that was Blitz's favorite thing to do. And he being a dog that wouldn't remember her, he'd have no second thoughts on doing it. The dog house was empty. Roo gulped when she heard snarling behind her. She swerved her neck to see Blitz right behind her.

The black fur on his back was up and his shoulder blades high in the air. His fangs were like razors and his eyes were like a cold stare. Then Roo remembered. Oh shit—he was a Doberman.

Roo screamed when the dog chased after her, trying to bite her on the rear. Between the sirens going off, Roo running in circles with a mad junkyard dog after her; the whole thing looked like a circus. Roo jumped on top of the dog house, escaping Blitz's jaws by only an inch. The girl gulped in terror and stared wide-eyed at the ballistic Blitz. Why couldn't he be this brave as a Cano-Sapien? Her hands resting on the roof of the dog house trembled and those shivers ran through her entire body.

(Blitz! What's wrong boy?)

The girl gasped at the voice of another human and looked over to see two German boys, twins by the looks of it, staring inside the kennel. She saw them and they saw her.

They were blonde haired boys with chestnut brown eyes. The one on the left wore brown dress pants with a green vest and white t-shirt underneath. The one on the right wore black dress pants with a blue sweatshirt. The boys looked at each other and the one on the left nodded. The right twin turned and called out "Papa!"

"No wait!" Roo waved her arms back and forth in the air to stop him from getting the Chancellor. She almost lost her balance on the roof and quickly caught herself. She peered back to see the twin wearing the green vest walked into the kennel and closed it behind him. The sweatshirt twin watched from afar. He didn't seem to go anywhere.

Roo waited in hesitation as the boy walked up to her as she sat awkwardly on the roof. They stared at each other for at least fifteen seconds and then the boy knelt down next to Blitz. The dog calmed down as soon as the boy slid his hands across the dog's cheeks and rubbed him behind the ears. As soon as Blitz' tantrum was subdued, the boy stood up and looked at the strange girl in their backyard.

(Who are you?) he asked in German. When he saw Roo inch away in fear, he smiled and reached out his hand. (Here, let me help you down from there. Don't worry about blitz, he listens to me. Not very much for my brother Georg though.)

Roo took his hand and was helped down. She clung to the boy when she noticed Blitz inch toward her with a growl. She noticed that she was holding onto the boy and she backed up embarrassed. "Th-Thank you," she mumbled.

"Oh, you speak English?" the boy asked, "American, right? I can tell because you don't seem to have an accent to me. You know my dad has been to America before."

The girl eyed him like he was an alien from another planet. He knew how to speak English? Well, he was the Chancellor's son.

"—You're not going to tell on me that I'm here?" she asked.

"Depends," the boy put his hands into his pockets, "What are you doing in Blitz's kennel for?"

"I-I can't really tell you. You know he's a Road Rover right?"

"Jah, everyone knows in my family and my dad's closest men. The president's dog in the U.S. is one too, isn't he?"

Roo nodded sadly that their secret was out.

"—My name's Edmund," the boy told her his name, "And if you plan on taking my dog somevhere, I think my brother and I deserve a right to know. Georg does not speak English by the vway. He never cared to learn. "

Roo sighed and told Edmund what she was really planning on doing with Blitz and the other world leaders' dogs. But she was careful not give out Shepard's identity to protect him. Of course, everyone wanted to meet the man who made Cano-Sapiens. The boy nodded and looked to his brother and spoke something in German to him. Edmund looked back at Roo and said, "Vee vhon't tell you on our father. But you must bring Blitz back safely."

Roo nodded in agreement and was ready to take Blitz until Edmund stopped her, saying one last thing.

"My father really misses his old dog. Maybe Blitz being a Road Rover again will help with that."

"I promise I'll bring him home."

Edmund helped Roo take Blitz over to the secret passageway to the underground tunnel. He was amazed at how deep it way and asked if he could go too. Roo simply smiled and shook her head. Shepherd would kill her if he brought another kid back with her. Blitz looked down into the hole and yelped. He was frightened to go in the hole. It took both Edmund and Roo to shove him in and the dog yowled in terror as he fell through the opened area.

"Thanks," Roo grinned at Edmund.

"Viel gluck (good luck)," Edmund responded and shut the passageway after Roo slid down after Blitz.

When Roo got Blitz to the base she headed for Switzerland. It was a peaceful country she was told by Shepherd; a lot of sheep and friendly people. She was going to have to watch out for Shag's owner, Jean-Pascal Delamuraz. When she exited from the transportation center from within a tree's trunk, she found herself in a field filled with sheep. The befuddled girl looked around to see if Shag's home was nearby. When she realized she was nowhere near the estate, she huffed. She thought the sheepdog was going to be easy access!

"Roo, it's alright," came, Shepherd's words in her head, "Shag's home is near this hill. He uses it to get to Road Rover Headquarters all the time. Just go down the hill to get to the estate and you're there. Watch out for the guards."

"Then how does Shag get out without being spotted?" Roo asked.

"—Shag's a very mysterious dog sometimes, now go."

Roo shrugged and walked down the meadow. She saw dandelions and flowers of all colors as she made her way down. She jumped when she heard a dog bark and looked over to see a Saint Bernard playing with its family. The massive dog was giving piggy-back rides to a little girl that rode on his back. The mother was taking pictures while the father was playing airplane with the girl's younger brother. The tiny tot giggled and cooed as he pretended he was a bird.

"Wheeee!" laughed the father.

Roo sighed as she kept on gazing at them. She really wished Ted and Carol played with her like that even though it was dork-like to play like that at her age. And them being cat-people never helped either. Ted was a sports fanatic. He played varsity football in high school and college. Ted was a man that could only get a scholarship to college through football, Roo thought. Carol was a real estate agent and worked hard day and night to get money into the house.

It seemed like they were always too busy for the ten-year-old.

She was still staring until she felt something knock into her in the back. Roo fell to the ground and spat dirt out of her mouth.

She shook her head and looked behind her to see a sheep was behind her. The sheep had the weirdest pupils. They were vertical slits and the colors of the eyes were yellow. Roo had never seen eyes like that before. She was dazed by the blow to the back by the powerful animal and was now staring straight into the face of the sheep. The silence was broken when the sheep let out a long and irritating "baaa" and Roo frowned. Was that a dignified baa?

The girl nudged the sheep's face away and stumbled to her feet. She felt her legs jiggling like jello and she fell back down on her hands and knees.

"Hey you!"

A rather large man in work clothes was stomping over to her. At his side was a black border collie. The man had a staff in his hand and tapped it impatiently in front of Roo as he waited for an explanation of hers for being in his field.

"This is private property young lady. What business do you have on it?" he scowled.

"Um—I—" Roo couldn't explain her way out of this, "—Sorry! Sorry!"

The girl jumped up and ran as fast as she could away from the mean man and his field. She got a look from the family and Saint Bernard as the border collie barked after her but stayed with its owner. When Roo was off the property, she stopped. Her hands were on her bent knees and she panted heavily in exhaustion. It wasn't until the father of the family spoke is when she noticed them.

"Little girl, are you okay?" he asked.

Roo looked to him and nodded.

The woman smiled empathetically and said, "Don't mind him. He's just an old grump. He tells us to keep of his field all the time. Even when we're far off the field!"

Roo made her way to the Swiss Confederate estate soon after. She wondered how she was going to get in.

"There are no guards near the garden, Roo. There's a fence that the bars are wide enough that you can get through," Shepherd told her.

"Ah! Dr. Shepherd, you have to warn me before you sneak up into my mind like that!" Roo flinched.

"Enough of that now. Shag's in the garden sleeping with very little security around. Go get him before more guards decide to come out."

Roo obeyed and snuck to the side. Shepherd was making sure none of the security cameras were lurking onto Roo's position. He used his master computer for that problem. The girl motioned to the garden and snuck through the bars. Maybe this is how Shag got to the field. When she arrived at his location, she hid behind a few bushes. The guards were on the opposite side of the garden.

Phew.

Roo clicked her tongue and the sheepdog flicked his ear. It wasn't working. The girl had to think of a way to get him over to her. A dug up patch of dirt came into view. She blinked and looked into the hole. A bone was buried there and probably left unfinished by Shag. The bone was a bit gnarled and dry drool was covered on it. Roo wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it out of the hole.

Carefully, she slid it through a less dense part of the bush and waved it around. She clicked her tongue again. This time, the sheepdog lifted his head and looked to the left and right to see where the sound was coming from. When he noticed the bone sticking out of the bush, he licked his chops. Shag got up and made his way over to the bush. Roo prayed to the lord thanking him that Shag loved to eat, especially bones at that time. When the dog stuck his head through the bushes, he saw Roo.

The dog chewed on the bone greedily, barely minding her. Roo smiled and remembered how much Shag was a lovable dog. She pat him on the head and went to pull the bone and the sheepdog over to the fence. She "huffed" when she found she was getting out of her hiding spot. Shag, weighing around ninety pounds was holding the bone back. He didn't growl but was stern on keeping the bone in his mouth.

Roo only weighed about seventy-five pounds and was no match for the dog's weight. She decided to use more force and adrenaline this time. After a risky five minutes waiting in the garden watched by security, she managed to get the dog through the fence. Shag never let go of the bone the whole time.

* * *

Roo was nervous to go to Moscow, Russia. What if Yeltsin caught her and the secret tunnels would be found? Would they imprison Dr. Shepherd? Then there really wouldn't be any more Road Rovers. Then she thought of Exile. The dog she admired nearly bit her face off when she tried to get close to for him to remember her.

Even Shepherd was worried about how the dog would react to her; maybe even more than Yeltsin if she should be caught. He didn't share his thoughts on this with Roo as to not worry her. He told her that he'd block the security cameras on the Russian Presidential estate like he did with the others and that he'd try to keep Yeltsin distracted as much as possible. It was summer in the country but Roo had to put on a sweater still and warm pants for it was still a tad chilly. Summer was like fall in America for some parts of Russia.

She got to the secret tunnels and all she could think about was Exile. Would the husky have any memory of her this time? With Colleen and Shag, their aggressiveness toward "strangers" besides their immediate owners seemed to go down. When the transportation vehicle got her to Russia, she found herself let out underneath a rock formation.

A cool breeze went through her raven hair. She took her hood off and found herself in the middle of a thickly dense pine tree forest. Shepherd told her to go further into the woods east and there'd be a park close by. She followed his directions. The pine trees smelt like sap and needles. She had to be careful not to get whacked in the face by low branches. She pulled back her head and smelt the piney scent of the trees. For the first time in a while, she felt like she was back home in her treehouse at the lumberyard.

When the park came into view, she saw slides, swings, and a playground. She saw a few boys playing football in a field. A boy was caught cheating by making a fowl as he knocked over a taller boy carrying the football. He screamed something in Russian at the cheater and knocked him off of him. The boys howled and laughed as they all toppled onto each other making a dog-pile.

It had been over six months since Roo was able to be in a park with kids her own age. There were girls playing jump rope and the tinier kids playing on the playground and swinging. There was even a carousel with different animals like horses, bears, fish, tigers, and even a dragon on it!

Roo gasped in delight.

She immediately ran over to the ride. She was oblivious when she ran past the curious looks of the boys who piled on top of each other. She nearly knocked out a little boy who walked into her way. The mother yelled at her in something Roo couldn't understand and kept on running.

Oh how she wanted to ride the dragon! It was a beautiful color of yellow, red, green, and blue. Very friendly kid colors. It had spikes on its back and a long tail that coiled around its hind legs. It stood up like a horse with its snake-like tongue curled out. It had piercing yellow eyes. With it standing up, Roo wondered however she was going to ride it. It had an extended saddle she noticed when she got closer.

The carousel stopped and kids were getting on just in time for Roo to get there. The music played festive old Russian tunes like American carousels play band music. When it was her turn to get on the ride, she was stopped by the man running the machine. He extended his fingers and rubbed them together in a circular motion.

Roo didn't understand what that meant.

When she went to open her mouth, she was interrupted when the man pointed to a sign. She needed to have Roubles if she were going to ride the dragon. Exile explained that Roubles were Russia's equivalency of American dollars. Roo sighed and walked down the small staircase from the carousel. It would have to wait.

The girl had to get herself to the Soviet Presidential estate.

She remembered where the giant house was. She walked down the streets and past the stores. There were a lot of apartments. Moscow was the most populated city of Russia after all. She was given odd looks by people though. She didn't know why until a man stopped her in the middle of the sidewalk. It was a hobo by the looks of it. He had on a ratty-old jacket with grease on his white shirt. He had ripped jeans on and old sneakers. He reeked of booze.

He spoke something in Russian and Roo shrugged her shoulders, noting to him that she couldn't understand him.

The man gritted his teeth and before Roo could react, he rose out his arms and let out a loud yell. He then went to appear of what it looked like was to grab her.

The child stepped back and ducked out of his way before he could nab her. She ran and dared not to look back. The homeless man didn't chase her. Instead, he reached into his deep pockets and pulled out something. My God, he had deep pockets, Roo thought. He could be carrying anything in there! Luckily, he only pulled out a container full of liquor and gulped it down greedily. His cold blue eyes never left her brown ones.

When the drunk was done drinking, he wiped his greasy beard and mouth off and went back to the ally he had sprung from.

What's wrong with people in this city? Roo asked herself.

"You have to be careful Roo," Shepherd explained, "Even though Yeltsin never showed you any discrimination, there are many people in Russia that don't take fondly of people of your—um—don't be offended if I tell you this but, because of your color. Especially out of Moscow. You're probably in the safest place in Russia right now; the inner city."

"Safest place?!" Roo snapped, "That man tried to grab me!"

Roo realized people were starting to eye her even more now that she was yelling and she calmed down. She decided to walk and whisper but didn't let her eyes leave the ally. She felt like an escaped prisoner looking over her back every time to make sure no one was following her. The Russian soldiers and the Russian people she ran by in the marketplace to get to Exile never treated her differently. But the more she thought about it, the more she started to remember some dirty looks and unpleasant muttering from some of the people. Not all, but some.

She knew there was racism in the world. She wasn't that sheltered. Hell, being at TLC made it a reality of discrimination. There were staff members from different ethnic backgrounds and lives that Roo was very knowledgeable of different races.

Spanish, German, African American, but Roo was never introduced to Russians until recently. Neither would she find herselfactually **in **Russia.

The glares never stopped either. People pointed and muttered under their breath. Probably the only funny thing out of it was two Russian teenage girls with a camera. They recognized Roo's English and asked "Picture?" They had smiles on their faces and motioned the camera closer to the ten-year-old. Roo then got the idea. They wanted to make fun of her.

Roo furrowed her brows and shook her head, "No."

The girls looked at each other and laughed.

"No, no, you mistake us," the blonde said, "We no see black people ever. We just want picture to show friends."

"Oh—well, okay. I guess."

Smiling the camera was awkward for Roo. Getting a picture with total strangers? It was so weird.

When they were done, they thanked her, and Roo took up the opportunity to ask them a good question. She asked where the capital house of Moscow was. They pointed to the nest street on the left and to follow it all the way down. They looked at each other confusedly after and looked down at the child. They asked her if she were a tourist and that her parents were nearby. Roo explained simply that she was staying with family, said goodbye, and began to walk where she was shown.

When she made it to the capital house, carefully, she stopped and saw something that made her mouth drop. Guards were everywhere and people in suits walking around hastily and talking to each other. One man ran from one group to another while a woman held a cellphone in her right ear. And slap dab in the middle of the commotion was Boris Yeltsin.

"I sent a fake message to one of their receptionists that a fellow citizen has planted a bomb in the city," Shepherd stated.

"Are you crazy?!" Roo jerked.

"Don't worry Roo. I made it so that they'd find a fake bomb in the sewers. Their machines will pick it up and find that it's not real. I used a teleportation device I invited to get the fake bombshell there. You'll have enough time to get to Exile."

"—Shepherd you are one crazy man, you know that right? And how am I going to get to Exile? I'm sure the security will be **doubled** around the property."

"I just know a lot about international emergencies, Roo, and Exile's closer than you think."

Roo was about to ask what that meant until she saw the husky standing right at Yeltsin's side. He was tied down by a leash held firmly in the president's grip. Exile still had the cold look on his face from nearly biting Roo. He didn't look like his happy-self anymore.

Roo took a few steps back and shook her head, "I—I can't do it Dr. Shepherd. I just can't what if Exile tries to—"

"If anything happens Roo, I'll be there for you."

The girl blinked. Why was Dr. Shepherd being more understanding this time of the predicament? He was always a kind man but this time, he was acting odd; almost fatherly in a way.

Roo decided to take his word and waited outside the premises. When it was announced a "bomb" was in the city, people began to panic and flee. Roo struggled to keep out of peoples' way. She was nearly trampled over by the screaming crowd. She had to stay close to the estate at all costs. The girl found a fence with a cement curve bump underneath it. She climbed up the cement and clung to the bars.

As soon as things "calmed down" she got off the fence and made her way to the estate. She saw Exile going back into the estate with Yeltsin and the girl began to panic. If Exile got into that house then there'd be no way to get him out. Roo screamed his name in terror.

The dog turned his right ear and looked over to see Roo standing in the vacant street. He growled and began to bark. He felt he needed to get to that girl for some reason. Whether to attack her or to simply get his stomach rubbed, he needed to get to her.

Yeltsin looked down at his dog and blinked. He then looked to where Exile was barking at and gasped.

"Guards! Get that girl!" he ordered.

What the hell was that American girl doing in Russia again? And how?! Yeltsin wasn't going to let her get away from him this time.

Through his own fault, he let go of the husky's leash. Exile bolted off to get to Roo. Yeltsin cursed and tried calling Exile back over to no avail. He was about to rush after him before he was stopped by one of his officers warning him it was too dangerous at the moment. Yeltsin sighed and left the race after his dog and Roo up to his men.

Roo knew Exile would follow her now that he was chasing her. She ran down the street as fast as she could, looking back over her shoulder to see if the husky was on his way. He was. She smiled. All she had to do was get him to the park and to the underground tunnel. She heard Russian voices behind her and noticed three lean and fit men chasing after her behind Exile. Crap. It was Yeltsin's goon squad.

The girl made a sharp right on the street where she encountered the two teenage girls. How was she going to outrun a dog and three men with longer legs than her? By one solution, improvising. She caught up with the crowd and rushed into the pile. She moved through it fast, ducking out of shoving arms and bodies. The men in pursuit of her tried moving the crowd out of the way but it was to no avail. Only Roo and Exile were small enough to get through the people with more ease.

Roo finally made it out of the crowd and raced to the park, Exile not far behind.

The dog barked like a maniac. Roo was shocked. Through all those people, he still found her. Exile hopped down the staircase where Roo had ran down. He turned left to follow her into the pine tree forest. The black leather leash was still dangling at his side as he ran.

Roo panted heavily as she was only now twenty-five feet in front of Exile. Almost there. Almost there.

The designated rock formation where the underground tunnels were in view now. She stopped and caught her breath for a micro second. When she heard howling, she looked back to see Exile trotting up after her. She ran to the rock that opened to let Exile out from when he was done at the headquarters. She waited for it to open but it wasn't. It was stuck!

Roo began to push it to slide open but the boulder wouldn't budge. She huffed and panted. She looked back to Exile who was now five feet away, his jowls open. She screamed and climbed for her life on top of the rock. Exile growled and stood up on his hind legs, trying to get to Roo. The girl couldn't believe it; he was looking at her as if she were prey.

It wasn't a bonus point when the Russian soldiers caught up to her. They were just over the bounded hill and were walking down to them.

"It is over little girl," the tallest of them said, "We are going to take you back **now**."

Roo cussed and screamed again as Exile reached for her a second time. He failed and jumped back down on all fours. How could Roo get out of this? If the boulder did move then they'd find the underground tunnels and the whole Road Rovers operation would be shut down. But—if she didn't get out of this—She looked down at Exile and saw his baring fangs—she'd be a husky's meal.

"Why are you doing this Exile?!" she demanded as she pound her fists on the boulder's surface.

The men went to reach for the husky's leash until they heard a loud blast followed soon after by a creaking sound. The creaking sound turned to a loud ripping sound that sounded as if something was falling. Pine needles were flaking onto the ground. Branches began to topple down on the men and they looked up to see a giant tree falling!

They ducked out of the way on the opposite side of where the tree was falling for their lives. Exile whined and ducked away along with them only going north. Roo screeched in terror and covered her head.

BOOM.

She opened her eyes to see the tree had missed her by ten feet. It was a humongous pine tree at that! The width of the trunk was over seven feet long and the bark was thick as a rhino's skin. Her eyes followed down the trunk until it came to the source of it falling. A smile of delight came to her face when she saw what had caused the tree to tumble.

There stood Shepherd with a laser canon over his left shoulder.

"I told you if you needed me, I'd be here," he said.

The man appeared to be struggling with it as he ran over to Roo. He ordered her to grab Exile's lead as his hands were full at the time. She did as she was told and ran over to where Exile was. The husky was cowardly hiding behind a tree. He didn't put up any fight when Roo grabbed the end of his leash and pulled him along. She struggled a little as she got him over to the boulder as the husky did not want to go over to the fallen pine tree.

Roo stopped and asked how he got here.

"The underground tunnels, Roo and next time, the trick to get the boulder to open is to tap it on the side," he answered.

"Why didn't you tell me that in the first place?!" she demanded. Exile was still cowering behind her.

Before the men knew what happened, Shepherd, Roo, and Exile were already down through the tunnel and back to Road Rovers Headquarters. This time only, all the Rovers were back.

**TigerTulip: Edmund and Georg are not the real names of the Chancellor's children. By that time, both of his kids were grown. They're fictional characters of mine. I decided to do twins in honor of my two friends who are. I decided to have Shepherd as more of the father figure for Roo too. Exile has more of a big brother and little sister relationship with the girl. I never really was a fan of Shepherd because you see so little of him in the cartoon. But I seem to like him more now. He's the wise man amongst the rovers, except for the wise dog, and always is there for his Rovers whenever they need guidance. I'm sorry Colleen's section of being rescued was short. Will Shepherd be able to save the Road Rovers? Stay tuned until the next chapter. Thank you.**


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